jwinokur dot com

2003-03-18 11:04 a.m.

I met David at Burning Man and we spent a lot of time that week having some great conversations. Since he lives in Copenhagen, I was lucky to be able to visit him during my last trip to Sweden—Copenhagen was just a short hop over the border into Denmark.

Recently I did a favor for my friend David.

Since he knew I would be returning soon to complete the recording of my album, he asked if I would buy a digital camera for him if he wire transferred me the money in advance. I obliged.

Obliged may be the wrong word, since I didn't do it with any sense of obligation. The thing was that it sounded like a lot of fun, actually. I loved the idea of using someone else's money to experience the thrill of shopping. On top of that, I could enjoy a sort of casual–sex–style relationship with the object bought—it would be without any of the usual complicated attachments that come with large purchases such financial obligation, ownership, etc.

I got the camera in the mail about a week before I left for Sweden again, and I had a plan. I was going to do my best to completely fill the 128 MB memory card with pictures I took. And, my vision was to use this high–end camera to take the worst pictures possible. The focus would be on the most mundane or clich� subjects, terrible composition, bad form, and lewd content.

And why did I want to fill the memory card with such images? Well, I basically thought it would be funny if—at the moment of his greatest excitement and anticipation of owning the fancy new camera—I'd hand it to him, he'd turn it on, and it wouldn't work.

All the lights would light up and it would appear to function normally, so it was surely not broken. But it wouldn't take any pictures. Hm, why not? Further investigation would reveal that the memory card was full. "Gee, full of what?", he would wonder. And then he would switch it to preview mode or connect it to his computer and see the 128 MB of masterpieces I created, all with him in mind.

I never finished filling the memory card, but I did manage to take 58 pictures. Better than nothing! Below is the photo–diary of what it was like to be David's camera.