Buildings, especially old ones, are a fascinating slice of history. And they need to be recorded as a way - the only way - to preserve their memory for future generations.
Sadly, in many parts of North America, century old houses in country areas are being neglected to the point of letting them fall down and turn into rubble. Which is then removed or burnt or left to rot. End of story. One or two or even more generations of settlers born there, who grew up in those rural surrounds and eventually left for better futures in larger towns or cities, are soon forgotten, and yet more history lost.
Like my grandparents' farm home in rural New Brunswick (Canada). Built in 1884. My grandfather was born there in 1894 and lived there until 1991 when forced by old age and infirmity to move into a nursing home, where he died in 1993, a few weeks short of his 100th birthday. The house was then sold (by an aunt who didn't have the inherited right to it, but got hold of the title certificate - a surprise sale which deeply split the family into many dissenting units - to a niece, who renovated and 'modernised' it until the interior lost all its original charm. Fortunately, she left the exterior unchanged as it was too expensive to replace the original weatherboard. After a decade there she too moved on, and the property passed out of the family. Sad, but this happens.
As an architect (now retired) I've been looking for and photographing old structures for many decades. Not with a view to doing 'picture perfect' architectural imagery with exact proportioned verticals, but just as memories. Any camera will suffice. I've long ago lost count of the numbers of old houses, shops, garages, barns and the rest, my Nikkormats have recorded in their time, and going on doing so. Now in Australia, where fortunately many of our rural communities are being rediscovered by Aussies doing post-Covid lifestyle changes and moving away from the overcrowded cities.
Repeating myself, any camera will do, also whatever films you already have or can get your hands on. Or even digital. The important point is to get out there and actually photograph all these structures before we lose them forever.
