Dad was a collector. And he loved to research and catalog. And he loved photography. And those loves are evident in his cameras.
When I was a teenager, I dabbled in photography. I loved using my Mom's Yashica-Mat twin-lens reflex. I remember the year Dad and Mom gifted me with an Olympus OM-1 single-lens reflex. I was so excited.
I spent time with Dad in the darkroom, developing my first steps in film photography. But as I got older, into my late teens, and off to college, the photo-bug loosed its grip on me. And I couldn't seem to get it to grab me again.
After Dad retired, and his avid interest in cameras gained room to grow, I felt less and less worthy of playing with cameras myself. It all seemed too much: There was so much to learn, and he already seemed to know all of it.
Playing with cameras. That's what I felt I would be doing were I to pick one up and fool around. Even point-and-shoot cameras. Even digital cameras. I was intimidated without even knowing it. It took his passing to show me that.
A few weeks after Dad died, Christine and I were at Mom's house, along with John and Lisa.
Mom: David, you need to look at Dad's cameras, and pick out a couple that appeal to you.
DAH: I don't know. I don't know anything about his cameras.
Mom: Well, Peter looked through them, and read about them a bit, and chose some. He's marked them in the display cabinet.
John: I picked out some, too. Come on, I'll bet there's a couple you'd be interested in.
DAH: Well, OK. But I don't know anything about cameras.
Where's monkey when you really need a straight man to build into a laugh line? Not here now, and not there then, and there wasn't any laughter. Maybe I cry too easily.
But it really was interesting. And as John and I looked at cameras, I knew what I wanted. I wanted the cameras I'd used as a boy, or like the ones I'd used, or seen my parents use. And I wanted to use them, too.
So, I have Dad's first Periflex. He bought it in the summer of 1958, just in time to take photos of his new baby boy. He used it to take photos on the Mauritania when we shipped west from England to America.
Mom said, 'He liked that Leica CL, and he used that.' So I have that Leica CL, and I'm taking photos with it, too. These first photos are probably crap, but you have to start somewhere.
And I've got a Yashica-Mat, like Mom's. I bought for myself. It's getting cleaned and repaired so I can shoot with that, as well.
Maybe you can't go home again. But you can take parts of it with you. And use them. Make something new out of your memories, to keep them lively in your mind's eye. Next best thing to a really good photograph.
DAH is David Anthony Hance at www.DAHplaytime.com
Your Dad was a teacher. He loved to share knowledge and to excite the love of learning. He was in his element when he could teach someone something. But he tended to be a 'let me tell you and show you' sort of teacher rather than a 'let's learn this and do this together' sort of teacher. I suspect that this may have been the reason for the sense of intimidation that you talk of. Dad was 'the authority and the holder of knowledge.' Peter and John felt as you did at first but once they had broken free of that feeling they too got interested and intrigued.
Posted by: Y'r Mum | September 08, 2009 at 04:37 PM