Last September one of my old friends got married, to a lovely guy named Matt.
No, that isn’t Matt above. That’s Michael, her brother.
It was a great day. There were lots of old friends there that I hadn’t seen in years. It was particularly poignant as most of us had only ever really interacted (in the main, at least) in muddy fields at music festivals. Yet here we were, dressed up and there for one of our own doing something very grown up indeed.
Hannah had asked if I would be the photographer for the day, and I sadly had to say no. Both of my usual ‘wedding cameras’ had completely stopped working that same week, with no prospect of getting them fixed to a standard where I would trust them anytime soon. On top of that, I had just gotten engaged to Grace a few weeks prior, and my head was still spinning from the prospect of having to work out how on earth to navigate the mammoth task of dealing with the distance, and the visa process. I probably wasn’t a very good pal back then – something I regret.
All that aside, the day was great. In keeping with Hannah’s personality (and now, I’ve come to realise, Matt’s too), the day was fiercely unique and laid back. In the style of a music festival, there were big tents and mexican food from a kitschy van. Did I mention that the combined wedding/honeymoon vehicle was a VW Camper Van?
I vaguely remember taking my old Leica with me to get some pictures, with no promises that any would see the light of day. There were a couple of shots on the end of a reel I processed months ago, but to be honest I completely forgot that I had taken another full roll. It wasn’t till the other night when I found and developed this un-marked can of Neopan that I realised.
These are pictures that I thought were gone.
One of the best things about film is this sort of thing. Re-discovering moments that you had forgotten ever happened in the first place. The instant gratification of digital (for all of its ease) means that a bit of the wonder is lost along the way at times. This isn’t any sort of argument in favour of film as a medium; it is expensive, time consuming, and regularly a massive pain in the ass. Sometimes though, it can surprise you. I hope it surprises Hannah and Matt, in a good way. I hope that they remember bits about the day that might have slipped through in the sheer sensory overload that is a wedding. After all, that’s what photography is for… surely?
September 2013, England
Leica iiia – Jupiter 3 50mm f1.5
Fuji Neopan 1600