Chills

I have been wanting to share this story for awhile. It’s something that has really resonated with me. I know I keep saying this, but I feel like I really do need to keep telling myself how lucky I am. Not trying to sound like I’m bragging, that would just be ridiculous. It’s simply that sometimes life can be hard, and you need to remember the good stuff in bad times.

I’ve had the privilege of working back at the Museum of Anthropology again for the last few months… didn’t I already make this post? I know… This one is new. I am an extremely lucky person to actually make a living as a photographer for the most part, but to make part of my living photographing something that I’m so passionate about… Double passion going on here. Photographing some of the coolest ancient artifacts from all over the world. I did major in Anthro before I switched to study my other passion of photography…So this is seriously the coolest job for me that I can imagine…

It’s ridiculous that I could ever get tired of such a job, but like any job, there was a day during this last contract where a huge rack of miniature pottery was brought into the digi studio. Tiny little pieces all made of clay, and I had to photograph each and every single one of these pieces. It took awhile, as I’m sure you can imagine. Part of my deal is that I have to try and photograph as many objects as I can in a day while maintaining extremely high quality images, no photoshop allowed after all… Lighting, and showcasing each object as it appears in life. Important for research and the archives.

So, after a few days I started getting a little bit bored of these little beautiful South American pieces of pottery that pre-date any European influence. I’m a horrible person… The shots were all macro, so they were taking up some sweet time. The rack I got to photograph after I was finished had Ancient Egyptian mortuary artifacts on it. They were sitting there on their rack watching me with their 4000 year old eyes of Horus… Can you really blame me?

I was photographing one tiny little piece of pottery that was no bigger than 5 centimeters in diameter. It was a little bit lopsided, so I turned it around to try and get a better view of it in case it’s image would ever need to be published. When I turned it I noticed there was a perfectly preserved thumb print in the hardened clay…

That person is gone, and this is their legacy. I swear my heart stopped beating for a few moments. Something that person probably didn’t even think about, and here I am hundreds of years later realizing that one day not too far into the future, I’ll be gone as well; all of us will… I certainly didn’t mind finishing the photographs of the objects on that rack after that… So simple, and so profound. I probably wouldn’t have even noticed it if it hadn’t been for the macro lens.

I try to remember that every day we spend on this planet is amazing, it really can be a challenge sometimes. I really hope that by sharing this story with you, you might think about how lucky you are to be alive as well.

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Tags: Ancient Artifacts, Ancient Egypt, Kyla Bailey, Kyla Bailey Photography, MOA, Photography, Pottery, Pre-Colombian, The Museum of Anthropology, The University of British Columbia, UBC

• December 4, 2011
• Photography, Uncategorized
• 4 comments