Today we’d like to introduce you to Luke Guidici.
Luke, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
A few years ago, I was at a thrift store when I found a camera that still had a roll of film inside it. This discovering launched me into a multi-year project where I collected over 100 cameras that had all been sent to thrift stores and consignment shops with rolls of film still inside. I became obsessed with the search. There was something exciting about finding a camera with someone else’s film still inside it, and it was thrilling to learn what stories those photos told.
But there was something more that intrigued me. As I collected the cameras, I thought a lot about why this phenomenon was so interesting. These photos represented real moments in real people’s lives… they’d made it a point to capture them, but somewhere along the way, their intention was lost. A photo is taken to share a moment, but when that photo is never seen, the memory is lost.
I realized that if I placed attention on these photos, I could begin to restore the intention of the moment. I hoped that by doing so, I could redeem these memories. So I took one hundred of my favorite photos and wrote a short story or poem to go with each, then collected all those into a coffee-table style art book. Earlier this year I gave a TEDx talk entitled “The Intention of Attention” where I discuss these themes in greater detail.
Has it been a smooth road?
I’m not a photographer; I’m a writer, director, and film editor by trade. So starting this project, I didn’t know much about film photography, and I knew nothing about publishing or book design. Actually, when I found the cameras I had no idea what I was going to do with them, the entire experience has been one long process of figuring it out and learning as I go.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Found in Kitsap – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
When I initially began the project, I decided to focus my search on one area, Kitsap County in Washington State. This was the county I grew up in, and I still have deep roots there. Kitsap County is an interesting place, a small, mostly rural community of only 254,000 residents it’s comprised of 396 square miles of land, and 255 miles of saltwater coastline. My hope by keeping the search limited to the one location that when people heard the story, they’d think “Wow if all that was found in Kitsap… what is there in my community waiting to be found?”
Recently I’ve decided to expand the search and have begun looking for lost film throughout the entire country.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I love the culture, the food, the music, the accessibility to nature, be it mountains or deserts or oceans–it’s all right here. There are so much to do here and so many people, if whatever hobby or interest you have, you can find people who are into that too.
It’s not the most original thing ever, but the thing I like least is the traffic. Luckily, I live in Hollywood and can walk to almost everything I need.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.foundinkitsap.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/foundinkitsap
- Facebook: facebook.com/foundinkitsap
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