A Photographer Photographs
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
A photographer photographs.
To do this a photographer has to have a
camera. It has been many years since I left my house with a camera for those
just-in-case moments or simply with the purpose of taking pictures that might
interest me on the way somewhere. In my youth when I was in my early 20s and
particularly when I lived in Mexico,
which was exotic even though I had been there for many years there was always
something that would spark my interest. I felt naked without the weight of my
Pentacon-F or my newer Pentax S-3 around my neck. A camera, particularly these
all-metal ones had heft and there was an impression that when I pressed the
shutter button it was the beginning of an act of magic that would progress from
the latent image in the negative to the backwards reality of the properly
developed negative. From there, I would face the magical ending of seeing the
image emerge in the developer bath.
With the ubiquity of people with cameras I
am not sure if my initial statement, “A photographer photographs,” is valid
now. Should this definition of mine be amended?
My 2007 Chevrolet Malibu sports a small
Municipal Plate on its windshield. For about $235 I can legally park in back alleys
and loading zones for 30 minutes for the purposes of loading or unloading. For
many of us who have these plates it is normal procedure to abuse the privilege. I know
all the safe spots in Vancouver
where parking enforcement of Municipal Plate abuse is nonexistent (or almost
so). I can abuse the city statutes for a whole year without getting a
ticket.
This means that my Malibu is often parked in seedy back alleys. Nobody
has ever broken into my car.
There is one back alley off Davie and Granville where
I park when I go to Leo’s Camera. It was not too long ago that when I locked my
car I noticed this doorway. While ignorant of the man’s talent I do know enough
to surmise the man on the door is Nick
Cave. Just once, I took out the only camera I was
carrying at the time, my iPhone 3G and I snapped. Three days later the door was painted white.
