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| My Mexico City Cameras - scanned 6 October 2023 |
Going to Mexico DF (CDM) on 12 October will be a journey that will expose me to the ghosts of my mother, grandmother and my Rosemary. Rosemary and I lived there from Dec 1967 until we left for Vancouver with our two Mexican-born daughters in 1975.
Because I am not too swift it was in the late 90s of the last century when I understood that to have nostalgia for a place you had to be not there. Since then I have taken many photographs to link my nostalgia for Argentina, Mexico and Texas with what I remember of those places.
There is no doubt in my mind that my career in photography both in Mexico City and here in Vancouver came with the backing of Rosemary who pulled strings with our finances so that I could have the equipment I needed.
It was on Thursday, August 15 2013 when my life as a photographer changed for the better because of my Rosemary telling me I needed to buy a digital camera as I could not keep bribing Brazilian, Mexican and Argentine folks at the airport not to X-ray my film.
Because of the intelligent and practical help from Jeff Gin I purchased a Fuji X-E1.
Yes I shoot film all the time but my X-E1 and newer X-E3 have given me an opening to a world that would have been hit and miss with a film camera.
In the last 10 years I have pushed my style by using slow shutters and getting what I called swirls. I started with photographs of dancers at the Arts Umbrella Dance Company and from that point on I have not looked back. I am especially happy with my photographs of Art Bergmann’s concert last Friday at the Rickshaw Theatre.
Those ghosts in Mexico City I will somehow record with the four cameras I am taking.
The Asahi Pentax S3 (it was used and 2 years old) I purchased at Foto Rudiger on Avenida Venustiano Carranza in Mexico City in 1962. It was my principal camera in Argentina and Mexico until we came to Vancouver.
A month and a bit more ago the shutter button of the Pentax fell out. This involved a complex fixing by Horst Wenzel. To my dismay after he fixed it he died shortly after.
I see the taking of the Pentax as King Arthur returning with Sword Excalibur.
The Widelux will enable me to take interesting swivel-lens panoramics. The X-E3 will be my principal camera for taking portraits of Mexican writers.
And what of my X-E1? I am a firm believer of Patterson’s Law of Photography that states that Murphy was an optimist. It is my backup.
