"If ever any beauty I did see, Which I desired, and got, 'twas but a dream of thee." - John Donne

I did the thing.

I am old enough to remember when The X-Files ended, ebay was flooded with all sorts of production stuff for pretty cheap prices, including continuity photos. I always wanted one, just to say I had something captured in time between the film negatives.

I was lucky enough to find something possibly better.

The X-Files Museum has been selling off bits of stuff here and there. And in there, 3 continuity photos. I couldn't place where this was from, but my friend Amy got it instantly: this pre-dates the show. Its Gillian on-set while filming The Turning, in 1992. Considering that this was found in Chris Carter's collection, it could very well have been something he saw that had him ear-mark her for the role of Dana Scully the following year.

She was 22 or 23 here. Fresh faced, freckled and her hair pinned up. I couldn't resist buying it with her doe-eyed look, and like that one perfect scene of The Portrait in Somewhere In Time - I was just drawn to it completely, whole and utterly.

I am 43 now, but looking at that photo reminds me what it feels like to be 14 again. A crashing tide of nostalgia, threatening to pull me to sea.

When I got it in the mail yesterday, it had a swath of the script stuck to it, some how perfecting the whole vibe of the photo. I gently folded it back and slid it into a page in my Itola photograph portfolio to keep it safe.