He seems to be using traditional darkroom photography (you know, film and negatives and paper and chemicals and stuff) as a comparison to how we really don't know what is happening in a relationship until much later. Just like we don't know what the photo looks like when we snap the shutter, but only after the involved process of developing the film and printing the photo. "Let the fixer work until the silver's washed away and take the picture from the tray. Look hard at what you see and then remember you and me and let the truth spring free." The fixer is the chemical that makes the printed photo permanent, otherwise it will continue to fade to gray. So the truth is finally revealed to him and his understanding of the truth about the relationship is "fixed," but the relationship is now over, so it is too late. Like the moment you shoot the photo is when you are there, in the midst of the action, and when you finally get to see and understand it, you are distant from the original event, which is long over. The snake reference I don't really get, and the "birthright in your fist" stuff doesn't seem to fit with the photography metaphor, but it's a Mountain Goats song, right?
He seems to be using traditional darkroom photography (you know, film and negatives and paper and chemicals and stuff) as a comparison to how we really don't know what is happening in a relationship until much later. Just like we don't know what the photo looks like when we snap the shutter, but only after the involved process of developing the film and printing the photo. "Let the fixer work until the silver's washed away and take the picture from the tray. Look hard at what you see and then remember you and me and let the truth spring free." The fixer is the chemical that makes the printed photo permanent, otherwise it will continue to fade to gray. So the truth is finally revealed to him and his understanding of the truth about the relationship is "fixed," but the relationship is now over, so it is too late. Like the moment you shoot the photo is when you are there, in the midst of the action, and when you finally get to see and understand it, you are distant from the original event, which is long over. The snake reference I don't really get, and the "birthright in your fist" stuff doesn't seem to fit with the photography metaphor, but it's a Mountain Goats song, right?