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Date: Sun, 3 Feb 2008 07:58:25 -0800
To: orphanpictures@gmail.com
About 15 years ago, when I was away at school, my parents' house was broken into. When my parents & brother arrived home, my brother had a look around the property and found a roll of film lying on the ground next to the house. Curious, he got the film developed. All photos of a typical life, a child's birthday party, badly framed pictures of average people, but they were evocative for my brother and I. We imagined that it was the thief's own film, that we were seeing into his world and it humanized him, made him a little sad, even. Of course it's more likely that the film came from another house he'd broken into and he'd discarded the roll along the way, but we liked our version of the story better... I held onto the photos for many years, thinking that they'd make a good jumping-off place for a creative writing exercise, but eventually after bringing them along with me on several moves and never using them, I finally threw them away last year. I wish your site had existed before I got rid of them! It would have been interesting to post the photos without the story - and see if they belonged to a neighbour or the thief...
- Kim
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14 comments:
I really like this blog.
I've posted about this blog, and encouraged my readers to link/post about it. This is a GREAT idea.
It means a lot to know that you held onto the film for so long- I lost a disposabel camera at Disneyland around 1998. It contained many pictures I think about everyday- they were the last photos taken of me and the person I lost together. Although your found photos are gone, I hope you know you gave me hope.
This is a great site. I lost my camera in Seattle, Washington. I last had it at the space needle or 5 point cafe. I called to ask if they found it but to no avail. I will keep watch on this site in hopes that someone will post my pictures on here. Thank you!
When I was a child, our home was broken in to, as well. The thieves took everything but our camera and our toothbrushes. When things settled down and we finally finished the roll of film and had it developed, there were pictures of the thieves sticking our toothbrushes up their butts.
It was a harrowing time.
Best Thief Story Ever.
is it bad that i laughed about the toothbrush/ thief story?
@ Twiggy: I don't know if you'll ever read this or if this is even you but... are you African American? I found a roll of film in Seattle and wonder if it's you. Email me at sushipit@yahoo.com
The toothbrush story is an old urban legend...
I love your blog. Even though I never lost a camera, I look at your blog every so often just in case me or someone I know is pictured. :)
Our home was broken into, they took everything from my parents jeans, the frozen chicken in the freezer... just anything they could get there hands on. Luckily, they were caught in a stolen vehicle later that evening. Some of our stuff, including my camera was in that vehicle. I used a web-based photo processing company to have my filmed developed. I will NEVER forget the knot in my stomach when I pulled up the email to see pictures of the 4 teenagers theives destroying our property in the woods. The first picture was them in the truck pulling out of our driveway. You would think these pics would have been great proof to use against them... Unfortuantely, our criminal justice system is so screwed up.. the theives were never prosecuted. After their initial booking and release, they took off to never me found again.
right after my parents had just got married, someone broke in to their house, leaving it a total mess. the person stole many things that meant a lot to my parents and my sister (i was not yet born), including amethyst jewelry handed down in our family, and the camera which held the only film of my parents honeymoon. the thief ripped the roll out, ruining it. although it was a long time ago, i still feel bad for my parents, not having anything but their memories from that trip. i wish i had been able to see those pictures. i wish that they hadn't been ruined, and i could find them on this website for them.
David Foster Wallace writes about the toothbrush up the butt thing in his novel Infinite Jest.
About fifteen years ago my house was broken into. I am now 18, so i was 3 at the time. The thieves took a whole storage box containing all of the film and video of my whole life. There was video of me in disney land, there was video of me getting baptized. Because of the burglary I don't have any baby pictures.
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