Hello everyone, I just realized something today while going through photos. I’ve been taking pictures at the various Lao New Year festivals for 20 years now(!). Yes, that is truly insane to think about. The above photo is from Stone Mountain on April 18 of 2004 and the bottom photo was this past Sunday at Riverdale. Just how can twenty years go by just like that?
I shot the top photo with my Nikon Coolpix 8700. It was a “high end” bridge camera and I didn’t get a DSLR until later that year. I mostly shot digicams and film back in the day. Looking back I wish I’d shot more film.
What was life like in 2004? Well, we didn’t have much in terms of social media, and I was reluctant even back then to try this new thing called Myspace that everyone was jumping on. When I would run into other more serious photographers they always asked me if I was going to upload to Flickr. No, I had my website (this very one) back then, but it was a simple place to show my artwork and a few photo posts here and there, all done manually in HTML.
I think back then was definitely simpler, weekends were about hanging out with friends and watching movies. We probably saw Kill Bill: Vol 2 at the Mall of Georgia that weekend. We also ate a lot at Hooters and wondered when the next Hot Import Nights car show would roll into town. It was a very big deal for models or just anyone to get magazine covers back then. On the radio was Usher’s song “Yeah” and Outkast’s “The Way You Move” was a frequent earworm too. On my CD player in April 2004 was Tiesto’s “Love Comes Again” featuring BT, and also his album from 2003. I probably listened to the live Coldplay album from 2003 a lot too. I had to consult the internet, but this time twenty years ago Blink-182’s “I Miss You” was on the charts as well. Later in 2004 would bring The Killers, Keane, Hawthorne Heights, and many other amazing bands that would be a great soundtrack to our days 20 years ago.
Things change, times change, social media comes and goes. Everyone has a platform for their voice, passions and creative endeavors these days, but the humble photograph still remains.
