This is why I will never stop shooting

[oftheherd]

Buzzardkid - Somehow I missed this thread earlier. I am so glad your father is doing well now. We tend to take our hearts for granted a lot of times.

Keep taking photos everyone. I try to do it often as well. In fact, snapshots of family is about all I have time for any more. But I do that.

 

[Freakscene]

Dear Marty,

Ah, you're a wiser man than I. And you were FAR wiser when you were younger. But I'm learning...

Cheers,

R.

Just lucky, not wise. My grandfather, who was very influential on my early life (he died 20 years ago when I was 16) told me in a note that came with my first own camera, that time is like a fog that descends on the past and makes it seem like something very far away and hard to see, and that reminders are useful to let you know where you've been and what it was like. He often likened progress - a favourite topic of his was the loss of blood oranges and the dominance of nitrogen stored peaches in commercial markets, compared with advances in transport and medical services - to a carnival, sometimes good, sometimes bad, always crowded.

I've been at it ever since. I even have photos of all my offices, before I moved in, during occupation and after. I have a list of everyday things that I shoot with those few frames at the ends of rolls that always seem to be there when I come to develop. Digital has made it even easier. I have files of negs and digital photos entitled "Everyday". They're unedited, but they're there when I need them. In many ways they are the true product of my ongoing photographic endeavours, and the most palpable proof of my failure to achieve what I aim for. It's that failure that make me keep going, and keep trying to get better.

Marty

 

[johannielscom]

Currently I'm trying to persuade my inlaws to have my mother in laws picture taken. She's in hospital after an amputation of the lower left leg due to vascular problems. They are both camera shy. My father in law had a heart transplant 16 yrs ago and is on borrowed time as it is. I hope to shoot decent portraits of them both soon.

The school that I attended as a teenager and where I now work will be demolished, starting april 2012. Finally a new building (53 yrs for the old one).

Everybody's so concerned with planning ahead that nobody is thinking of the future past that still is here today.

I'm silently shooting a series of the classrooms, desk drawers contents, names scratched in walls, etc. for that future past.

 

[Freakscene]

The school that I attended as a teenager and where I now work will be demolished, starting april 2012. Finally a new building (53 yrs for the old one).

Everybody's so concerned with planning ahead that nobody is thinking of the future past that still is here today.

I'm silently shooting a series of the classrooms, desk drawers contents, names scratched in walls, etc. for that future past.

That's such a fantastic opportunity; please show some here as you can.

Marty

 

[dotur]

www.ivanlozica.com

Keep shooting. And don't forget to shoot the mirrors regularly, or don't be afraid to use self timer for self portraits now and then. Hiding behind the camera won't save the photographer from death!

 

[huntjump]

Michael Winner in "My Teenage Diaries" (BBC) makes the superb point that we photograph the wrong things.

Wouldn't you LOVE to see a picture of your parents' house or the interior of your bedroom when you were young? Of your lecture halls at university? Of the room (or even the outside of the building) where you lost your virginity?

Cheers,

R.

Roger I agree with you, except for the last one. you want to reserve that for video...

i'm kidding of course!


Great thread Buzzard, glad your dad is okay. I like the photo too.

 

[Messsucherkamera]

Each photo is a precious artifact

Each photo is a precious artifact

This thread makes a point that I have been thinking about recently: Photographs and their negatives are precious, irreplaceable artifacts.

I have a small collection of photos of my mother and my father (both deceased). They had their problems and theirs was not a happy marriage, so there were no family photographs and not many individual photos of them. How I wish I had made it more of a point to photograph them, even if they wouldn't sit for a photograph together.

I developed some Tri-X the other day - I was a little surprised at the care with which I handled the negatives when they were dry. The subject matter was nothing earthshaking, just some street photography. But I felt like these negs were important.

Perhaps it was because there are no guarantees about how much longer Tri-X - or film as a whole - will be available to us.

 

[mdarnton]

Dredging up a thread from the past, because it interested me:

I started taking pictures around the late 50s and worked at it full-time into the 80s, when I switched careers and my only commercial-type work continued in support of my new job (I work in a field that always has an in-house photographer, and that has been me), but I have always shot plenty of family photos as a sort of continuing art project, no matter how disillusioned I was with it. Consequently I have a wonderful collection of "family" pictures, many of which were never even printed, but at least they exist. Recently I've been going through my old negs and scanning the best. It's like finding hidden treasure.

Going through my film, which is indiscriminately filed by date, not by family/other, it's been interesting to find how many of the photos I am attached to now have been ones where there's some personal connection. Even in the commercial ones the ones that rise to the top are the situations where I happened to be involved with the subjects personally (this is, for instance, the advantage of being a news photographer in a very small community).

Relative to Roger's comment, one of the things I was able to do a few years ago was photograph the inside of the house I grew up in, after it had been mostly cleaned out, ready to be sold:


Hall, Alpena by Michael Darnton, on Flickr

 

[Frida]

Dredging up a thread from the past, because it interested me:

I started taking pictures around the late 50s and worked at it full-time into the 80s, when I switched careers and my only commercial-type work continued in support of my new job (I work in a field that always has an in-house photographer, and that has been me), but I have always shot plenty of family photos as a sort of continuing art project, no matter how disillusioned I was with it. Consequently I have a wonderful collection of "family" pictures, many of which were never even printed, but at least they exist. Recently I've been going through my old negs and scanning the best. It's like finding hidden treasure.

Going through my film, which is indiscriminately filed by date, not by family/other, it's been interesting to find how many of the photos I am attached to now have been ones where there's some personal connection. Even in the commercial ones the ones that rise to the top are the situations where I happened to be involved with the subjects personally (this is, for instance, the advantage of being a news photographer in a very small community).

I reread this thread today when thinking of the thread I started in this forum re: transitioning to capturing family life. For me, this is the heart of photography.

And photmoof, one of your posts was also part of my inspiration for the thread. I doubt my future kids will be too interested in the weddings my wife and I shot, but they might take more of an interest in, say, pictures of our first apartment, our first house, or the night we were engaged. And to that end, I doubt they'll spend too much time peering over the EXIF data or pixel-peeping the images, either.

 

[John Bragg]

Great thread. My mother is approaching 89 and I have made a concious effort to spend time with her and make a few portraits. We should all do this and also take care to safeguard our files and negatives. The trivial things of today are the treasure we store up for tomorrow. I was also priviledged to have taken some portraits of a dear old friend and his family used them on his obituary and the order of service at his funeral. I take pleasure in knowing that his family, dispersed worldwide as they are, all have a copy of his portrait as a treasured memory.

 

[paradoxbox]

Definitely a cool thread.

I lost my grandfather to cancer last year. Unfortunately I was not able to see him before he passed - I will regret that forever.

But we got some good photos together along the way..

I agree with the others echoing the statement - take pictures of whatever you want. Someday you'll probably look back at them and be glad you took them.

Grandpa and I - cheers

And here was one of the last photos I ever took of him

 

[Spanik]

Wouldn't you LOVE to see a picture of your parents' house or the interior of your bedroom when you were young? Of your lecture halls at university? Of the room (or even the outside of the building) where you lost your virginity?

Excellent point. Got some shooting to do. Some of these things even don't exsist anymore. Too late.

 

[Prest_400]

Although I'm on a rut when it comes down to film photography I never stopped shooting neither documenting. I've become sort of mobilephoneographer (would it be like that?), but even a crappy low res digital camera is decent for keeping stetchy moments for memory keeping.
A year ago I even wanted to begin writing, however that hasn't been succesful...
I was tagged by classmates that I am the journalist/spy as I take pictures of everything. 😀

I had a biking accident a couple of weeks ago, that wasn't severe, but it makes one think (lost a tooth and have a small scar over the lip) about how things that happen can vanish.

Further down this, (many) as photographers we document our surroundings, yet we neglect to include ourselves in the scene. A friend of mine sometimes tells me "it's not fair you taking pictures of me, let me take you a few" and thanks to that I do have photos with my nice teeth.

The first thing I did when I shot Kodachrome was to document family. I always think I will have those slides there. The physical matter of film photography is a charasteristic I really like, as I rather mistrust digital.

I recall reading around (Mat Marrash blog) a post about this and photography, he put a quote from a class or instructor: "Why do you take pictures? ... because people die" and it has sticked to me.

Something I keep hearing from time to time is that, despite having really convenient digital media, things happen and when photographs are the most valuable, there are little or none to be found. Contexts, environments and people change constantly, despite that many fail to see it.

 

[L Collins]

I became fascinated by photography when I was 10. Here I am at 12 years old:

Here's me with my Dad. He was 34. He died two years ago:

At the time I took them, I was just playing around, a kid experimenting with his newest love, photography.

43 years and 100,000+ photos later, they are two of the most meaningful photographs I've ever taken.

 

[pakeha]

Quote "It actually is nothing special."

Have not read all replies so someone may have already pointed out that " actually this is something special"

 

[noisycheese]

Some months ago my dad and I visited my son on his annual huge scouting camp, way up in the North of the Netherlands.

Here's a shot:

It actually is nothing special.

BUT: as it turned out later, my dad had a minor heart attack that day, only an hour or so before I took this. I still remember him being shaky and pale-faced while walking this sand stretch with me, and me sitting him down and fetching him a cup of coffee. Never could have imagined that he had been close to a bigger heart attack that day.

Finding this on a scanned roll tonight was a big affirmation that I really want to bring a camera to wherever I go, and shoot whatever I see. Trivial shots may prove so important later!

I finished the roll a week or two later:

That's my dad and my daughter in the hospital on visiting hours.


He's been back in the hospital for a night since then, apparently medicine dosage was off. Apart from that he's fine.


If there's anything I have learned from this, it's to shoot whatever you like even if it seems trivial at the time!

@ Johan,

I have to disagree: Your photograph is something special. Maybe only you and your loved ones will grasp the significance of the photo; that does not diminish the importance of it, though.

Your initial post brought the mind the words of Henri Cartier-Bresson:

We photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing, and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth can make them come back again. We cannot develop and print a memory.

Messr. Cartier-Bresson hit the nail squarely on the head with that one.

Sometimes our loved ones are among those "things which are continually vanishing." We never know on what day those dear to us will draw their last breath. We must cherish them, spend time with them and photograph them every chance we get.

If we don't "get" many chances, we must make those chances.

Godspeed to your father in his recovery. May you and he share many more years together.

 

[FrankHoltion]

Photography allows me to have the pics of my late grand parents and i am thankful to this machine and art which allows me to save the last moments with my lovely grand parents.

 

[Ronald_H]

That's a very strong message my friend, and one I won't forget in a long time.

 

[cellison]

I have recently been scanning some old black and white negatives and found many I took of friends 25 years ago most of whom I haven't talked to in that many years. I managed to track down all of them and sent pictures along with a "How have you been?" email.

All of them replied and all commented on how great it was to see the photos, asking if I had more. One thing led to another and I leave this coming Saturday to head back to Toronto where they all still live and we are all getting together to relive old times. Without the photos I'm not sure the response would have been so immediate and positive.

I'll be bringing both a film and digital camera with me to get updated pics. Digital for the low light (meeting in a pub) and black and white film to capture the same look as the old pics.

Of course at the time I was taking the original pics everyone was annoyed with me and tried to hide their faces. 🙂

I'll post the old and new pics here when I get back.

Chris

 

[TKH]

Thanks Johan for bringing us this fine thread.
I read all the true words and so I checked my computer for a pic of my father. He died two years ago. My father had his 80´s birthday party six years ago. I took the photo with a Sony Alpha 100 camera. These beast of a camera never worked the way I wanted with a Metz flesh.

No not never.

One time it did what I want:



This remindes me to take photos of my mother. She is 83 years.

Thanks,
Rainer