nostalgique [nɔs.tal.ʒik], adj. relatif à la nostalgie. empreint de nostalgie ou atteint de nostalgie.

"L’obsession de l’ailleurs c’est l’impossibilité de l’instant ; et cette impossibilité est la nostalgie même."  Emil Michel Cioran

 

For JWCM's 40th I decide to do a video that will be a tribute to our misspent youth and the gang we ran with when I first came to New York. Like any such project, it quickly explodes into something larger and more complex. Between 1995 and 2003 there are only print photos and most of these aren't dated.

I open dozens of envelopes that have been stored in four boxes and a few rudimentary albums. I start to see a vague chronology from the various places we lived, lovers who came and went, trips we took, birthdays and celebrations. I recognize all the faces, but can't quite remember all the names. I decide to do an album as well, maybe the others will know who is who.

This trip into the past leaves me with mixed feelings. Perhaps youth is wasted on the young (now, at an age where I can appreciate the truth of that statement, even if I haven't entirely reached the wisdom behind it). Yet I want to recapture that passion when everything was new and exciting and we were, surprisingly, almost innocent.