altering life by holding it still

Clicking through the news on the National Press Photographers Association website this morning, I came across this article about two photojournalists who donated their expertise and resources to help restore the family photographs that were damaged during Hurricane Katrina. It goes without saying that this is an incredibly thoughtful gesture, and what they wound up calling Operation Photo Rescue, soon found them with over 500 photos, of family vacations, weddings, and other priceless snaps. After the loss of a loved one or pet, losing all of your photos strikes me as one of the most heartbreaking. Homes can be rebuilt, new clothing purchased ... but having just sifted through over a decade of my own photos recently, as difficult as that was at times, I cannot imagine not having them. You cannot replace 50+ year old wedding photos; that moment can not be recreated. And it is the moments that they capture that compell you ... because it's not the well-framed-impress-your-friends vacation shots that strike you so much, or the occasion photos, it's the awful, blurry, let-me-just-get-the-camera-out-and-take-some-snaps photos, the ones that probably don't even make it into the albums that make you laugh and think, oh my god ... I completely forgot about ________ . And the older they get, the funnier, sadder, and greater the oh factor, naturally. And it's maybe not so odd, but so many of my "priceless" photos were strewn around the apartment (and still are ... come to think of it), stuck in between books, stuffed in the file cabinet, in my jewelry box (why?).

The two photographers who started Operation Photo Rescue, Dave Ellis and Becky Sell, have a wonderful blog about their efforts, that is both funny and touching, and worth a read. And hey, if you can volunteer to help them out, they give information on how to do that as well.