I. During a family vacation, we found a roll of film that had been shot and accidentally left by an unknown photographer at the Sol Duc Falls trailhead in Northwest Washington. Scenes that had been deemed worthy of preserving now sat forgotten in a parking lot. I decided to take the roll.
II. As tourists, we moved from one point of interest to another. Our paths would cross with people we had seen at previous scenic overlooks and natural attractions. This became common and we would sometimes greet familiar faces to acknowledge that our webs of travel had once again intersected.
It gave me a clear sense that we were on separate vacations, but ones that were bound to intersect and diverge. Of course, we had personal experiences at The Hall of Mosses, Sol Duc Falls, and other attractions, but there was also the experience we shared with thousands of other tourists.
III. I developed the pictures as soon as I got home and discovered an intimate couple who playfully turned the camera on each other. I interpreted the pictures to be a document of their relationship and their unique experience in this landscape.
This differed from my own pictures taken during that time, which seemed to be much more about collective experience and the tourist landscape. Seeing these pictures reminded me of the value of making more intimate pictures of the people closest to me and their experiences.
IV. The found roll also made me wonder if we had crossed paths with the mystery photographers at other points during the trip. Did they pass us on the road? Did we greet them on a hiking trail? Did they eat at the same restaurant? Were we on the same ferry?
V. So I hired a private investigator to search for the couple by looking up the license plate number on the motorcycle in the pictures.
He insisted I depict him as “an Inspector Clouseau archetype”. “I’m legitimately cool with either Peter Sellers or animated in the book,” he added.
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