December 8, 2009

The Manhattan Tongue Project

Back in December of 1998, a friend handed me a role of 35mm color film and asked me to take photos of anything at all, and then give the roll back for her to develop. She wouldn’t tell me why, or what she planned to do with the photos. (I eventually learned that she planned to use the images as creative inspiration for a short story project, with me as her unwitting collaborator).

Not knowing her plans for the photos, and having no direction for what to shoot, I thought about the experience she would have picking up the mystery photos from the lab and seeing them for the first time. I wanted to take photos that would make her anticipation worthwhile.

These are the photos I took (click any photo to enlarge):

Comments

What a fun idea. Is your friend’s story online? It’d be interesting to see what this “inspiration” led to. ;)

How is that 11 years ago looks so LONG ago? Perms! Ravers! So awesome.

What do you use that enables you to move the pictures around after they are enlarger?

Is anyone else sticking out their tongues while looking at these?

NICE!
Well that was a roll well spent or shot or whatever you’d say in this case! :) Hope she was as amused as I am staring at people’s tongues.
Love the different locations you chose!

So weird…I was just around the city at most of these locations today…I wonder what I was doing 11 years ago (at the tender age of 12)…I do remember when Bank of America was still Fleet, and those big, red ornaments and Christmas tree of lights by Radio City are all still standing.
Great, great pics!

Did you ever read the story she made from these photos?