Sicily ... and England.

M and I went to Sicily a few weeks ago - several days of sunshine, good food, good company and relaxation. Although we had a digital in tow, I also had my usual clutch of Leica and Mamiya and happily shot off lots of rolls of film. Before I continue have a look at this:

This is not Sicily - this is London from the balcony of my flat. London from the balcony of my flat the day before I happily plopped a big package of films for developing (lots of Sicily, large format portraits of my parents who were here a few weeks ago) into the post to be developed. Pitiful misfortune that the processing house I send my films off to is based in Sheffield, which is currently under several feet of water due to the 200 year flood. (I don't know if that's what they're calling it, because I don't actually watch the news, but if they're not then this is what they should be...). And my photos haven't come back, several days after they would have normally, and a work colleague has told me that Royal Mail has thrown out loads of post due to water damage...

So of course my thoughts at the moment are not with the businesses that have been flooded, the houses that have been ruined, the people displaced and the lives lost and the cattle stuck up trees (not sure about this one actually) ... no, my thoughts are with my little package of photographs - a couple of dozen large formats, ten rolls of 120, three rolls of 135 - that might never make their way home to me.

I know it sounds a little trite and out of perspective, but I've often wondered how I'd cope if my house burnt down and I lost all my years and years of negatives and transparencies. I've read about photographers to whom this has happened and felt devastated for them so I cannot imagine how I would feel. I think when I have attached so much importance to photography the idea of it all going is like the idea of losing a close and dear friend.

M has been the voice of reason, telling me that it is more likely that the package is delayed, and not destroyed, and I hope that she is right, of course. In the meantime I have no particularly interesting photographs of Sicily to show as they're all ...(sigh) ... so instead I must show you this digital. I was going to write something about how mad all the drivers are in Sicily - a fact which escapes no-one in Sicily I'm sure (not even the Sicilians - I do wonder how they must feel when they arrive in somewhere as ordered as the roads of England. In Australia they must think it's equally mad, in the reverse, but I digress...). But I can't muster much enthusiasm for it all because I feel such a funk about the potential loss of my photographs.


ps. It wasn't raining in Sicily. It was hot and sunny and bloody gorgeous. Because it's summer! It's summer here in England too but you wouldn't blimmin know it.

Whinge, whinge, moan, moan... etc etc, ad infinitum...