To give you an idea of how long ago I took this photo, I was still shooting with (and developing) actual FILM. I was studying photography in Italy at the time— and doing a real bang-up job if it, I might add.

I assumed that all the casts of these lava bodies in Pompeii would surely be displayed inside a museum, lit by the soft orange glow of indoor lights. So I loaded my camera with tungsten balanced film for the day.

But they weren’t. To my surprise, all these bodies were out in the open air, lit by sunlight. Hence the ethereal and haunting blue light you see in the photographs — a happy accident from shooting the wrong film in the wrong light.

Now of course all of this could be solved (and/or added, if desired) with the click of a button, and so I especially like these photos as a reminder of how complicated and difficult life used to be before digital cameras.

Oh, yeah, and of course, life was probably extremely complicated and difficult for these poor Pompeii residents, too, seeing as how they died in a volcanic eruption after being engulfed in a fast-moving pyroclastic flow, and were then encased in calcified layers of lava and ash for centuries.

But it is believed that they died almost instantly, whereas I had to deal with daylight and tungsten balanced film for many YEARS, so…

#Difficulties