As a child, I found my grandfather’s shoes always told wonderful stories.
Photo taken 1976 with my first SLR, a Wirgin Edixa Reflex (circa 1954) given to me by my father, 50mm lens
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As a child, I found my grandfather’s shoes always told wonderful stories.
Photo taken 1976 with my first SLR, a Wirgin Edixa Reflex (circa 1954) given to me by my father, 50mm lens
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Last September, I posted a photo I had taken in July just before the onset of the whirlwind that snatched James and me out of Utah and landed us in Florida. I wasn’t really happy with the photo, but in a rush to try to get something on my blog I threw up an “as is” version anyway. With James’ miracle of healing and pronouncement of being cancer-free despite an original terminal prognosis, our lives are no longer being primarily spent at Orlando’s M. D. Anderson Cancer Clinic. I am thus finding time to blog again on a more regular schedule.
One of the things I’ve been looking forward to was revisiting that photo – one of the first I captured with my pawn shop find of a Mamiya 645 Super medium format film camera. Here it is; I’m much happier with it now. I hope you like it, too.
Mamiya 645 Super, Ilford FP4 Plus ISO 125 film, 50 mm (I failed to record the shutter speed and f/stop used.)
As a side note, the period of inactivity on this blog understandably diminished its following. If you like this post, I would be extremely grateful if you’d please consider sharing it with others. And please come back again!
“I am almost a hundred years old; waiting for the end, and thinking about the beginning.
There are things I need to tell you, but would you listen if I told you how quickly time passes?
I know you are unable to imagine this.
Nevertheless, I can tell you that you will awake someday to find that your life has rushed by at a speed at once impossible and cruel. The most intense moments will seem to have occurred only yesterday and nothing will have erased the pain and pleasure, the impossible intensity of love and its dog-leaping happiness, the bleak blackness of passions unrequited, or unexpressed, or unresolved.”
― Meg Rosoff, What I Was: A Novel
Mamiya 645 Super, Ilford 120, ISO 125, f/16 @ 2 seconds, 55 mm
Never let go of that fiery sadness called desire.
– Patti Smith
A man who is “of sound mind” is one who keeps the inner madman under lock and key.
– Paul Valéry
This is the last of my four-part series looking back at some of the quirkiness that was the 1980’s. I hope you’ve enjoyed the photos I’ve dug up and shared from my youth. It seems like only yesterday.
“Danny”, Nikon Photomic FTN, Ilford film & chemistry, circa 1980
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I hope when you are my age, you’ll be able to say – as I have been able to say:
We lived in freedom. Our lives were a statement, not an apology.
– [I can’t believe I’m voluntarily quoting] Ronald Reagan
“Old Daytona Beach” had so much more charm than today’s version. One could say the same about the subject of today’s photo, my lifelong friend, John.
“John” Ilford film & chemistry; Nikon Photomic FTN SLR; lots of cassette-taped music; Daytona Beach boardwalk (near the old clock tower); circa 1980.
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There is so much I could say about Danny, but I don’t have all day to write this post. He was an innovator, to say the very least. He was creative, daring, delightfully outrageous, and above all else, Danny was true to himself. Our friendship began in the 10th grade at Buchholz High School in Gainesville, Florida. That would have made it about 1977.
One summer afternoon in 1980, Danny put on his self-made MC Hammer pants (Note: MC Hammer didn’t design MC Hammer pants until the late 80’s) and white rubber boots and we headed downtown in my 1975 MG Midget convertible. We walked down the sidewalk enjoying people’s stares and as we passed an abandoned storefront, Danny reached out and tried the door. The photos that resulted were the first photos I ever captured that came with the feeling that I was really, truly creating something with my camera.
An illness took Danny much too soon. There was so much he and I shared that was fundamental to my view and experience of life. I miss him and still think of him often. I hope that in some way I am keeping his memory alive by sharing a few of these photos more than 30 years after we shared the fun and excitement of that afternoon.
“Danny” Ilford film and chemistry; Nikon camera; great friendship. Circa 1980.
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I had just graduated from high school. The Reagan era, the punk movement in the UK, new wave, amazing and bad and amazingly bad hair styles, innovative clothing and jewelry (at that time, one or twelve safety pins through the ear was extremely extreme!), general civil unrest and a seemingly universal dissatisfaction with the status quo were wonderful creative influences for this kid with an SLR and a darkroom. I was fortunate to have friends that were equally creative in other ways, and who had no qualms about being in front of my camera.
I thought it would be fun to share some of the photos over the next several blog posts that I took of my two closest friends from that era. One (John) is still my best friend; he’s in the photo featured today. Perhaps you’ll recall I wrote about him once before in my tribute to my high school biology teacher, Mrs. Fagerberg. Sadly, the other friend (Danny) was taken from us not too many years after we made his photos.
John had moved to Daytona Beach a few months earlier, just a couple of hours drive away. On one of my first weekend visits to see him after he moved away, we listened to a lot of Gary Numan’s album Telekon and went down to the boardwalk to shoot these photos. From a historical perspective, the boardwalk no longer exists as you’ll see it in the photos taken that day.
I’m still accused of having “purple hair days.” For the record, I really thought it was a good color for me. It went well with the safety pins I’d pierced my ears with.
“John” Ilford film and chemistry. That’s pretty much all I can tell you. Thanks to my dad for scanning the stack of negatives I handed him upon arrival for my recent trip to Florida.
Do you remember the 80’s? Go on… please post a comment below and share a moment, favorite 80’s band or song.
Today, I thought I would share one of the first images I captured with my new Mamiya 645 Super medium format film camera (circa 1987). I found this camera, along with 55 mm and 80 mm lenses and a Metz flash, at a pawn shop recently for $100. In three potentially trademarked words, “I’m lovin’ it!”
The downside of this photo and this camera is that it further reminds me how very much I love (and prefer) shooting film!
Mamiya 645 Super, Ilford 120 ISO 100, 4 seconds at f/16, 55 mm
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There’s nothing quite like processing and printing your own black & white photographs from film. My darkroom experiences started at a very young age: I inherited my love of photography from my father, who always had a full B&W darkroom setup in each house we lived in. Perhaps my father has long forgotten that day in our home in Ocean Gulf Estates when I was first allowed to see what it was he did in that room off the back porch where he would often disappear for entire weekends. I certainly have not…
Calla Lily 1
I am guessing I was probably about 4 or 5. Dad was going to develop some film, and explained to me that there would be a few minutes where all the lights would be off and the room would be very, very dark. I was told I could sit on the stool by the door, and that I was not to move during that time.
When the lights went out, I heard some interesting noises. Something got whacked against the counter top, then I could hear metal against metal, scissors being used and other sounds I couldn’t identify. I was extremely curious, and I couldn’t even see my hand in front of my face!
I still maintain that my father should have anticipated my move. You don’t invite an overly curious 5-year old to “watch” in a completely dark room! I mean, he could have avoided the whole thing by simply moving the stool away from the door (and the light switch).
I was a teenager before I got invited back into the darkroom. It was SO worth the wait!
I shot, processed and printed these calla lily photos this week. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed creating them.
Calla Lily 2
I invite you to view more of my photographs here.
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