Lost flicks, found lessons

I’ve been scanning more old slides lately and found a batch of photos I thought were gone for good.

They’re from this obscure tunnel session back in the 90s. Pure (RIP) and I went to meet Eklipse and some other writers down there. I don’t remember everyone who painted that day, but I remember the energy. Dark, grimy, and completely our world.

In my hard copies, I always knew I had more flicks from this spot, but they were nowhere to be found. My best guess is the photo lab back then looked at these dark, underexposed shots and just tossed them. Too dark to bother with.

Turns out, the images were there the whole time. The prints were missing, but the moments weren’t. Now, decades later, I’m seeing pieces and memories I haven’t laid eyes on since that day. Including Pure’s piece I thought was lost.

It got me thinking.

A lot of our lives are like that tunnel.

We go through seasons that feel dark, unclear, maybe even like they “don’t count.” No one sees the work. No one sees the reps. It feels like it’s all happening in the shadows.

But just because it feels dark in the moment doesn’t mean it’s wasted.

The time you’re putting in now, the effort nobody notices, the pieces you feel like aren’t landing… they’re still getting recorded. They’re still part of your story. One day, you might look back and realize those “lost” chapters were some of the most important ones.

I felt that looking at these photos. A special time in history I didn’t even know I still had.

The rest of the flicks from this day are below.

— Bus