I used to be a hardcore Wire fan back in the days (I still am to an extent but milder, as a few of you could infer).

The title of this post may remind you of the brilliantly written song however, we aren’t on about the disadvantages of speaking a second language nor the bad reception that resulted in a blurred perception.

We are rather going to display a serie of unfortunate events that led to the creation of two film shots taken in the wilderness of charming Slovak town Banská Sťiavnica.

At the end of a festive weekend, still under the effect of the local cherry wine, considering a strenuous trek uphill to reach the summit of the Kalvaria, I took a rest and gazed into one of the little chapels depicting Jesus’s 12 stations of the Cross, thus took a mindless shot.

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On the way down, I felt like another rest was needed to restore the senses and I headed towards a small dehors with locally brewed beers.

Suddenly, a scene caught my attention to the left, and instead of pursuing the deliciously tempting grain beverage, I turned around and remained still for some moments in a contemplation: before my eyes a beautiful horse and who seemingly was its keeper were in the leafy clearing, moving slowly as if they too needed some rest after a day in the scorching sun.

I took another shot, bewildered by the beauty of it all.

In the heat of the moment, daydreaming as I was, for what seems to last many minutes, the mighty and frail canon ae1 camera slipped off my hands and the back disengaged. I fumbled to get it to fall back into place, securing the body at the bottom of my backpack trying to limit the damage to a few light streaks.

I lost my beer craving and I was not tired anymore. I could only lucidly acknowledge to myself that at worst I had lost the whole exposed film.

I cringed at that thought and it tormented me each and every day until the development was done and delivered to me.

What I saw just upon opening the envelope and reaching out to the contact sheet with shaky hands was not at all expected: in fact some light did enter the camera and highlighted and reframed my shots precisely as if it had been purposeful.

I rejoiced in the discovery, happy with my film burned.

(and that Wire kept releasing witty wonderful albums until that same year 2017)