The
world seems to change even more quickly. I don't know this, but maybe
things seems to change even quicker as we grow older? Besides, I
always seem to forget how everything was back then, in the childhood
days when I grew up. A few things have etched itself into the memory,
and will probably never disappear, but then again a lot of things has
slipped my mind and will never come back. The more daily stuff, that
does not seem important at the time, has it's own way to just
evaporate from my memory, quickly. A coltsfoot in a road trench, a
red nylon Liverpool shorts pulled way up underneath my arms, a gravel
road full of bumps and holes, the childish heaven to ride your bike
on fresh asphalt, the envy felt as you watched your buddy being able
to ride his bike on the back wheel for as long as he wanted... Then
it's all the old houses and buildings that is no longer there, roads
that has been moved, the forever changing landscapes as new buildings
pops up. All those bigger things that you think you remember, but
still will struggle to explain if you were asked to do so.
Of
all things, why did I ever listen to my old dads words about saving
all that good Kodak Tri-X for the real good shots? I did not listen
to him all that much on anything else, so why didn't I just use it to
shoot all those great streetshots back then, when I grew up?
Today
I realize that it's just a shame, and nothing else.
The
streets I grew up on are the same today as back in the days. They
were a lot longer back then, but they are still the same.
The
Thomas-field was great for a game of football. Today it's a
tiny piece of bumpy backtrack, squeezed in between two heavy traffic
roads. Naturally, that was exactly what it was back then as well. The
traffic was not the same, but the grass was just as bad back in the
days as it is today. Everything worked back then. No one plays
football, or use this field for anything these days. It's just lying
there... between these two roads for no obvious reason. Back then it
was there for us to use, as we played football in zigg zagg to avoid
the worst bumps.
I
doubt that any Thomas owns this tiny piece of land anymore. It's
probably taken into some plans for future public use of some kind.
The old man called Thomas has probably passed away 30 years ago or
so, as he was an old man even back then. His house was yellow, and
it's still there. I don't have any idea if it's still yellow, even
though I drive past every now and then. I guess I don't have the time
to even check a simple thing like that.
We
are all more busy these days, even though we always had an important
football match to play at that time.
Two
Suzuki 550's speeding down the gravel... way to fast on that 30mph
road. Our main road.
A
blue one in the lead, soon to be overtaken by the red one. Loads of
dust, roaring engines, speed, action. Huge beasts those bikes! The
speedometers went all the way to 200 kmh, or even beyond. The eyes in
a boys skull almost popped out.
Everything
was bigger and faster back then. Well... not my fathers old Opel
Kadet. I think the speedometer on that one maybe went to 130 kmh, but
he never managed to go over 90, no matter how busy he was. The cars,
at least my fathers cars, were always slow as hell. A few of my
friends fathers had VW Beetles. They were never able to overtake any
slow or fast car either.
For
christmas in 1974 I got a camera from my parents. A real camera. All
the shots on this blog entry is taken from a few of the first films
ever to run through that camera.
In
addition to being a helicopter pilot, my father was also a kind of
magician. He could take film from any camera, and develop it in a
tank in the kitchen. When it was developed, he could also make fine
prints from the same films under red light in the same kitchen at
night time. I was invited to watch every now and then, and I remember
pure magic taking place right there and then.
A
bit later, when our new house was finished and we moved in, a
dedicated darkroom was made. I kind of grew up in that darkroom, when
I was not playing football on the Thomas field, or skiing, or doing
anything else outdoors.
The
camera was a Minolta Hi-matic G. An automatic viewfinder camera. I
realy hauled quite a few meters of film through that camera back in
those years, but time and (ab)use always went along nice with it. I
still got it, and I still use it quite frequently. I have shot a lot
of great photos on it during it's lifetime of 40 years this far. I
can't help wonder how my iPhone will look and work in around 38 years
from now...
I
got a few old cameras. For instance an old Rolleiflex from 1957.
That's ten years before I was born. That one also is as good as new,
and simply is a fantastic camera. You can hardly hear the shutter as
it ticks. Ticking like a Rolex... and I can't help thinking about a
fine swiss watch every time I use that camera. Great mechanics, and a
lovely and sharp lens. Sweet like candy.
I
love my Leicas as well, and the fact that you can hardly hear the
shutter. No noisy flapping mirrors are good when it comes to noise,
when noise is not a good thing. Mirror cameras can sound like letting
an elephant loose in a china shop at times, which is not a good idea
in certain obvious situations. By the way, it seems to be a rule that
mirrors on the other photographers cameras are a bit more noisy than
my Nikons... It's a feeling I get when I am in a situation that I
have to use it in a quiet place. Really strange I guess...
Owning
a good camera back in the 70's did put you into a few situations
where you could really let every strict order from any parent bounce
off like it was never mentioned. You were the recorder, the reporter,
and you had to do your duty. It could be that a few of the situations
was constructed by someone, but that seems to have vanished from my
mind as well. There was a lot of action to be reported and recorded,
and everything was great until the films was developed. Developing
film was not for kids to do, so my father did that job. Not every
negative made it to become a print... Luckily he was never to tough
on the censorship, and at least all the negatives survived to this
day. I got a few prints to make soon... digging out my old Tri-X
films from the mid. 70's.
Scanning
of film... yes, I have to go through this. As soon as I find myself
working with pictures on a computer, I seem to try find a million
good reasons to get away from it. As soon as I move from something
physical into the world of 0's and 1's. Endlessly binary rows...
Well, I get sweaty and a headache suddenly creeps into my body in
some mysterious way. I don't like it. In fact I hate it, but know it
has to be done these days. A real silverprint is so much more than
the scanned file from a negative, but still I do the scanning and the
posting of the files from time to time. I do it here as well, and on
Facebook... and on Flickr and all over the place.
It's
reality though, that the majority of pictures is viewed on a screen
these days.
I
would love to have a big white wall where I could go nuts with loads
of good silverprints instead, but that will probably not happen. I
can still dream though.
I
never edit my scans to any big extent. I might crop away the ragged
borders some times, and I might adjust a little bit on the light if I
feel like it, but I hardly ever remove dust and stuff like that. Only
in special cases.
I
will do some spotting on the final prints of these shots when I take
them to the darkroom to make prints of a few of them. I even think a
couple of them might end up on a wall somewhere in a small music
studio owned by a man I know well...
