I found some old love letters and all I could do was imagine their story…

A media experiment based off a box of letters that I had bought at an auction in Florida, between a husband and wife during the 50’s.

Letters are a dying art. Nowadays the new way to woo someone is through texts and cute, little emojis. Everything is so simply laid out for us through endless forms of technology, means of communication, and constant ways to stay in touch. Which is why I couldn’t resist myself when I stumbled across a huge box of old love letters when I was on a random trip down south. The second I saw the box, filled to the brim with these old-school letters (stamps and everything), I was instantly intruiged. I started skimming through a couple of the love notes and knew I had to have them. Fifty dollars later the box of pure history and wonder was mine.

As I perused through some of them here and there, I found myself imagining every little detail that they had splayed out for me. I did not have pictures posted for me to follow along with, such as the norm of Facebook and Instagram, but instead I got to create my own images as I read along, word by word. Granted word by word may be a little bit of a stretch, because they were all written in that fancy, old, cursive writing which I soon figured out is extremely hard to decipher. Needless to say I was still fascinated. As I sat there reading, I imagined the two of them writing back and forth to each other; what they wore, how they spent their days, the feelings that they had for each other and so desperately tried to convey through words on a piece of paper. So much was left to the imagination, not only for me, but for them as well.

These two people did not have endless outlets to know exactly what the other one was up to or how they spent their days. There was no Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, etc. All they had were these letters and the occasional photograph they attached with it. I wonder if they too sat there and imagined the life of the other one when they were apart? Did it make their bond stronger? Did it create a sense of longing that today most people can only imagine, since for the most part we are constantly involved in everyone’s lives in some way or another? Who knows, but it’s still pretty darn cool to wonder.