More than a decade ago, I had a blog. It was a fun way to share thoughts with friends, a fun way to connect with those near and far. Several of my friends had blogs also, and we all subscribed to each other’s feeds. I remember the anticipation of seeing a new post from a friend, and truly enjoyed reading each post, however long or short. I found my old blog (and even shared it with a few others!) and smiled while reading through it, remembering where I was while writing the posts. It’s amazing to me to be able to read through something I previously wrote, or see a photo I took, and immediately transport to a different place and time. Memory is powerful. It is sometimes painful, sometimes joyous, but the power of memory means a lot to me (more on that in another post, at another time).

If you followed my old blog, or my old flickr account, you would see I took a lot of pictures of my feet. A LOT. I have a relatively vivid memory of taking this photo, having just walked out a store on a busy downtown street, and seeing this array of pretzels. I remember crafting the story of the pretzels: did the bag pop open and they all fell out? Was someone startled and knocked them over? Did 2 people get in an argument and 1 person threw pretzels at the other? So many possibilities, and the answer isn’t really necessary. What was necessary, though, was to take a photo of my feet, standing in that place, wondering about the pretzel story.

My obsession with taking photos of my shoes in different places started quite by accident. I followed a project through construction and attended weekly job site meetings. (NOTE: I am pretty sure none of these footwear options are or were OSHA compliant. Hush.) I took the first photo here when fiddling with something on the camera, and then later in the day when I uploaded the photos to the project file, decided to leave it in rather than delete it. Maybe that’s like an ‘easter egg’ in a video game? (or maybe I’m trying too hard. HA!) Anyway, the following week at the same site, the floor had been tiled, and I thought it would be funny to take the same photo (second pic in the grid) BUT THIS TIME ON PURPOSE. A colleague of mine told me he could always tell which site photos were mine due to the gratuitous shoe photos. I decided to keep going. And going. And going. And you know what? Looking back at this series, or any of the other *cough* HUNDREDS of photos of my shoes, I can remember being there. Maybe not all the details, but something about the experience. And to me, that means a lot.

I like categories, lists, memories, and sorting. I like finding new relationships between things. Revisiting my old blog– “Vintage Shana”, if you will– is bringing a new energy to my creative space. Let’s see where this goes next.