Shot of the Day #254: Refractions and reflections

Shot with iphone, click to enlarge (you'll want to on this one).

A few weeks back my brother asked me for my address (again); last time he asked that I got FALLOUT 3 in my mailbox a few weeks later, so while he was cryptic on the contents, I was excited to see what would arrive.

A package was waiting for me at my door today, and it wasn't shaped like a video game. Instead, upon opening the "SE7EN head in a box" sized cardboard package up, I discovered something else. Something far more special.

What you see above is my father's childhood still camera, one he bought when he was just a kid. See the reciept? That's the original one from the store, dated 1951. Holy shit. I guess the family cleaning out some of Dad's bric-a-brac and found this relic, thinking I would enjoy it even just for nostalgic purposes. Opening it up with a snap, seeing the old-fashioned contraption unfold and expand into a working camera, wondering what images my father captured with this camera, wondering if it would ever work again and what kind of images would appear if I took a shot....so many possibilities, so many unanswered questions now that he's gone. Ill only have to assume it brought him great joy and bent a lot of light through it's lens.

Especially now, with the advent of the digital shot, from high end SLR cameras to iphones, the days of REAL photos being born of these camera, ones to collect, cherish and reminisce, are long gone in favor the easy, quick solutuon; digital shots that can be stored in a hard drive, but you can't hold it, you can't feel it in your hands, smell the chemicals still on the paper. Having just lost gb's gb's of visual memories because of a stupid, surprise hard drive crash, it made me miss the process of photography all the more. Photos stay with you, even if in shoeboxes or albums. This camera of my father's was a cruel reminder of why I miss photo albums and can barely tolerate the advent of iphoto and the "digital print".

I wonder if someday, when I'm gone, someone will give Remy my old DVX100 camera just how I got this...a mysterious box and a lot of memories captured though it's glass. Boy, does THAT camera have stories to tell...

Speaking of memories. I can't believe it's been 8 years since 9/11. Time seems to have warped by, so many moments, so many events, experiences, highs and lows. I know we're supposed to move on, but no matter what day this date falls on, it's something not easily shed in my thoughts and memories. Just like a picture.

Joe