Let’s examine why we love of photography, stroll down memory lane & share some of the vast archive that 25 years of non-stop travel can generate.
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Many of us love to record & share our experiences —almost to a fault as social media has borne witness. But photography is a wonderful medium for capturing special moments. Like most families in the 1970s, our knock-off Kodak only came out at birthdays & holidays, with relatives receiving copies of even the most poorly composed, blurry photos. But that was part of the charm: taking a roll of film to be developed, never knowing exactly what you’d get the next day & sharing the craziness with friends & family.
While living in Seattle, I began to realize the value of photography in my own personal story. Life picked up pace in my twenties with increasingly more travel & seemingly non-stop experiences. At some point I thought I needed to take photographs of even the most mundane subjects (my rental apartment, my workplace, a cat I’d befriended, whatever) because the future seemed so unpredictable. How would I remember all these experiences? Besides, making photo albums with catchy captions was a great way to spend an afternoon back then.
Even before the move to Spain in 1998, I began using my ex’s Pentax so much that I decided to get my own. The ZX-50 fit the spot for an affordable intro to what is often an expensive hobby. Without a gazillion options to adjust, the ZX-50 fostered experimentation & I felt limited only by my ability to buy & develop film! Price point was always a concern, & in a way I miss those days because I only took out the camera when I felt like the photo would be truly memorable. I was more present, more in the moment than today when it’s easy to snap & delete without much thought.
Along with all that travel, becoming a guidebook author & tour guide changed the way I viewed the world. I wanted to explore the past & obsessed over old photographs of Buenos Aires. I’d get together with like-minded friends, trying to uncover what had changed since the photo was taken & what it looked like in the present. Thankfully I started a photo catalog to remember those times for future reference.
An easy numbering system plus a Word template facilitated the yearly catalog; however, an unexpected benefit from describing photos was a large amount of research into monuments & destinations… often going down a rabbit hole of information. Never satisfied with general terms like “Alhambra,” I had to label exactly what room it was if possible. Nothing crazy, but more than a basic, one-word description.
My digital cameras evolved —I’ve had eight stand-alones since 2002— & these days everyone’s phone includes one. The fact is most of our photos today are nothing new. As long as the internet doesn’t disappear, we have a remarkable visual record of our present world… but not from 25 years ago! Hence, this new blog category.
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For awhile I’ve been debating how or even if I should embark on this large project. Some level of curation must be done since I can’t post ALL my photos from a particular month. No one would want that anyway 😉 My current thought is to present this archive with a single entry each month, similar to those cherished photo albums from the past that I loved to make.
One other aspect about this project is historical: travel for work & for pleasure since 1998 has generated an incredible archive of over 75,000 images. Although 25 years isn’t really a lot of time, the world is very different now than when I began guiding. Monuments have been restored as well as entire buildings demolished. I initially shared these photographs to a wide community of readers from around the world; now I can present those same images to a new generation of urban explorers who want to continue the fun (& important) task of comparing then & now.
Enjoy the look back at Argentina, Spain, Portugal & other destinations… from 25 years ago!
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Caveat: It’s currently 2025, so I’ll start with images from the year 2000. But I have even older photos that I’ll post as well… editing & uploading as much as possible between work assignments. The film scanner has arrived! Please be forgiving as I learn how to adjust color & other parameters on the scans… all tips are welcome!
I’ll also be backposting everything to the month & year they were originally taken. No watermark for the time being since I’m not posting the full-size image… a decision I hope not to regret. Be respectful & do not use my work without permission. If anyone needs an original photo (or to enquire about a building or neighborhood I might have that didn’t make the cut), feel free to get in touch via the contact form.
Click the category link below the post title to start exploring…