2005: Juju’s Secret

The darkroom had unlocked the hidden secret that accompanied his elevated consciousness whenever caught in the flash of the camera … as the illustration emerged on each page when placed in the developer, he would see both the complete pasts and futures of all those he had photographed.  It was as if that lightning strike had connected him to the Universe, and by taking his mother, he had become its prescience guided child, enfolded in an inter-dimensional universe whenever light captured an image, and fixed it into time.  The camera, as he saw it, was more than a window upon the world, it was a microscope, and his gift, was being able to penetrate the mysteries of the voyeur lust that accompanies every camera purchase – a greed to capture moments in history that convey meaning about who we are, and what we want to be.  He could actually know, for those moments, everything about what was happening, and why.  The realisation left him reeling.  He had only just completed a degree in journalism and got himself a desk-job with a local paper, writing up petty (and sometimes not so petty) crimes for a senior writer, to whom he was apprenticed.  He’d always focused on writing, but he had no idea that the camera would eventually provide him with his ultimate lens on reality, so to speak.  He’d decided to take the introductory photography class more as an afterthought than an action.  What on earth could this all mean?  Was he some kind of superhero, with special powers, or was he a madman?There was nothing to do but wait and see.  

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