First Steps (1981)
Isn't it strange, how certain items from our past linger while others disappear? The negatives were in an envelope I found while rummaging through boxes last year. I'd thought of posting the scans at the time but forgot. They're from my CEGEP days (1), taken for the first (and only) photography course I ever attended. One session, a darkroom, and a Pentax K1000 loaner—the iconic student workhorse of the era. I used the camera for just a few days, but it's crazy how well I remember most of those moments. I remember that clearing, just off Boulevard Gouin, and the friend I was with. His name escapes me but I know he was from Chicoutimi, the "big" town right next to where our daughter now studies.
And that blond guy in the blurred classroom shot. Jacques Kemp, I think. Had a very Robert Plant vibe. I saw him in a bar, years later, and we had a beer. He confessed he'd been "intimidated" by my vibe for some reason. Something about "coolness", my nose always buried in books, and that long necklace around my neck. It shocked me. Back then I was trying to escape the world and hide as far away as humanly possible. Cool? I would've crawled down a well and never looked up. I couldn't stand myself. That day I realized how impervious we are to the thoughts of others. How the impression we make bears little resemblance to the cruel judgment of our inner eye.
None of these shots are particularly spectacular. They're fragments of a beginning, particles yet to coalesce, and floating, far from their event horizon.
First steps.
P.S That 50MM lens just might be the same one I now use on my GFX. Talk about full circle…
P.P.S All shot on Kodak Safety Film 5062.
1: CEGEPs are unique to Quebec: a two-year educational cycle, just after high school and before university.
