Old Postcards

The materiality of a postcard makes it a collectible: a tangible treasure from elsewhere. On my travels—when I was somewhat of an alien without a “home“—I shot on an old Zenit and FED, Soviet-era cameras known for their imperfections, thus assembling a collection of film photographs with the appearance of faded postcards. For all I knew, they could’ve been taken in the 1930s, and so I liked them more.

Since the places I visited excluded me geographically, they just as well might’ve excluded me temporally. Paradoxically, they were placeless and timeless because I didn’t have a place in the world. In response, I collected the sights I’d seen, having instinctively chosen film as my medium. On the one hand, my film rolls were proof I was “really“ there. On the other, the pictures bore the stamp of a different time and belonged to an elsewhere. Film’s double gesture—simultaneously pointing to a tangible “here” and an elusive “over-there“—preserved the feeling of my experience as a passing through, imbued with uncertainty and wonder.

Of the collection, only two images were taken with a digital camera. Coincidentally, at the time of their capture, I was no longer a vagabond. Can you spot them?