Why I love of photography, a stroll down memory lane & sharing 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. However, photography is a wonderful medium for capturing those 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 it all? 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. I also started a photo catalog to remember those places I’d experienced 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 models 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 idea is to present this archive with a single entry each month, similar to making those cherished photo albums from the past.
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 scan… 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 here), feel free to get in touch via the contact form.
Hop in the time machine to explore 25 years ago in the following posts: