3 weeks in México

In early 2004, my friends and I took a three-week surf trip down the coast of mainland Mexico. At the beginning of the trip, I gave my friends a ton of black-and-white film and medium-format Holga cameras. These are cool because they’re cheap, use quality film, and produce interesting effects. None of us knew what to expect from the Holgas. We had taken out the inner-framing device, which not only constricts photo size, but also holds in the batteries for the flash. We taped down the batteries as well as the seams on the back of the cameras, which are known to let light leak in. We started out in the Puerto Vallarta area and then moved down the coast, hunting for secluded and desolate surfing spots. Having been far from any action and nighttime amusement for a week and a half, when we arrived in Zihuatanejo (supposedly known as “the land of the dirty girl”), we were hot in search of beer, party girls . . . fun. By the end of the first evening, we found ourselves piss-dirty drunk, in our dirty, $20-a-night hotel room, with two dirty transvestites, our Holgas in hand, taking some dirty photos. When we got back to Los Angeles, I sent all 80 rolls to be processed. Not knowing how to cut apart the frames after development, the lab used their own judgment on how to cut apart the negatives, since there were many overlapping exposures. What we were left with were random and accidental images in various sizes. None of the images were retouched in any way.
Rick Klotz.
http://www.freshjive.com