Matchy Matchy
©1988 Craig Ashby
Film Photography
Matchy Matchy is a slide film self portrait from my Memphis days. Titled because my shirt and color are camouflage for the wallpaper. I needed it in that dangerous laundry room.

The laundry room was at my apartment at The Mikado on Belvedere in Midtown Memphis. Such a dated apartment complex but it did have a pool.

That time was both horrific and wonderful. My first time living free from my family. One of those formative moments where you get to choose who you are.

Sometimes moments like these can seem like stumbling or meandering, but looking back from this vantage they seem pretty obvious. Each and every choice being a part of a direction that resulted in future choices.

Now this can seem like a bit of a trap. When the same lessons keep repeating eternally. Some would say that they keep repeating because I didn’t learn the lesson properly.

On some level I disagree. I realize that they are themes that repeat to see how you handle the same idea at different stages of life.

The repetition isn’t an indication of failure. It is an indication that whatever process we are all caught in is really a building process. Almost a refinery for the human soul.