I live in Australia now, but in the late '60s-early '70s I was in Canada and had family in Boston and Hartford, so I spent time down there. I remember Crazy Arthur in Providence. I do wish I had dropped in back in '72 and seen that Leica...
I also recall there were many Crazy Arthurs back then. Also Weegees. Like photo studios and dedicated camera shops, with the passing of time they have mostly fallen by the wayside.
Moving out of the cities (Melbourne and Launceston in Australia in my case) to a "regional center" just before Covid, was a revelation in so many ways. Most city people nowadays are rushed and stressed out and too status conscious for my liking - but then I'm at the age where "status" seeking no longer appeals, and I find I'm secure enough in my own skin (= crocodile hide) to be comfortable with who and what I am. Chasing after urban rainbows no longer appeals.
Life is slower and more pleasant in country towns. People have more time to chat and indulge in social pleasantries. I often get invited to one of the local pubs for a beer or two. My partner belongs to a photo group at the local library, but this was mostly inactive during the Covid lockdowns in '20 and '21. As for "culture", well - think shopping centers, which is where almost all the life in small places takes place these days. We have an excellent local library, sadly little patronised as few people read books now.
For photography out here in the bush, everything nowadays is digital. Uuntil a few years ago the local supermarkets had three-packs of color negative films, but not now Our drug store (pharmacy) stocks a limited range low-end brand digital cameras, a few cards, batteries, filters and cheap cases. That's it. No shop can be bothered to send out films for processing.
Country towns in their day all had photo studios which did portraits, weddings, selling cameras new and old, framing, processing, printing. In time these all closed, often as not when the owner retired and nobody wanted to buy in. A few just shut the doors and left everything to collect dust.
In 2012 I lucked into one such place, a true time-warp. I had local friends who knew the late owner's family, so I was allowed in to see what was left from 1997 or 1998. In a back room I found a cooler humming away, with 100+ films and, most valuable of all to me, old B&W printing paper, including rare Velox contact paper likely from the 1940s, going by the packets.
I bought it all. The family kindly gave me several boxes of B&W chemicals, all in metal cans so predating the plastics-everything packaging era. I've used it all and I'm now into the last of the FB printing paper. I have ten packs of 11x14" and 16x20" Ilford Galerie, the classic stuff, which the late owner bought in 1990. All still in good condition and yielding prints of an amazing quality.
Like almost everybody else I too miss the GODs of dedicated camera shops, personalised customer service, time to talk shop and be given good advice on things photographic, and of course pro labs (fortunately, a few of the latter still exist). Melbourne still has a few excellent used camera stores.
These days many old film cameras and lenses end up in charity shops (too often grossly overpriced) or on Ebay. Country people didn't put money into good gear and most often I see lenses by Hanimex, Tamron, Vivitar etc in our local Vinnie's (St Vincent de Paul) or Salvos (Salvation Army) stores. The film cameras sell quickly. Old digitals hang around like unwanted kittens or puppies. Eventually all find a new home.
In many ways I miss those years, in other ways I don't. At my age I'm more Buddhist, in thinking if not the spartan monks' lifestyle. Life is here and now. Today is everything. What I have to play with is what I make the best use of. Sure, I want Leicas and Contaxes and more Rolleis (the Hasselblads I leave to those who fancy them more than I do), but I have digital Nikons and film Nikkormats and two 1950s German folders and other gear to play with, and that suffices. When I've used up the films I have left in my fridge, I reckon that will be it for me. So it goes.
