Pedro Meyer

A week ago I told my journalist friend Maurice Bridge of my project that will take me to Mexico City in the beginning of December. He said, “Alex this will be a good bookend for your career.”  I immediately answered back with a grin, “This means I can return to Vancouver and die!” He laughed.

Because I speak English and Spanish I often think of these expressions and how the concept of a bookend does not exist in Spanish. It is impossible to say quickly without an explanation in Spanish the translation of a “show and tell”.

Why am I going to Mexico?

Just because my Rosemary died five years ago does not mean that I have to wait to die. I actively pursue when possible both my analog and digital photography. I have amassed over 5000 plant scans and I have now written 6730 blogs.

I am going to Mexico to photograph a well-known Mexican photographer, Pedro Meyer, who is 90 and has been blind for two years. It was about 15 years ago that while reading the on-line Washington Post I noticed a link called ZoneZero. To my surprise it was an astounding and advanced for the age digital photographic web page. I connected with the man in charge, Pedro Meyer and we became friends. I wrote an essay which is still up about asymmetry. It involves my photography of a woman who was born minus and arm and with a leg that was longer than the other. The essay is both in Spanish and in English.

 My Essay in ZoneZero

About two weeks ago I wondered what may have happened to Meyer. In Google I found that he has a very strong presence and that he even publishes books and has conferences. Using that wonderful 21st century device called WhatsApp I had a long chat. His marbles are intact. When I write to him he has an assistant called Ximena who reads what I send him. I asked Meyer what he would do if our tables were turned. He told me he would come to Vancouver to photograph me. I asked him if I should photograph him looking at me with eyes open, with eyes closed or in profile. He told me to do all three and advised me that he was going to take my portrait. He does discern a bit of light, but no more.

In 1962 when I was living in Mexico City I told myself that I could not be a photographer with only one camera, an early single lens reflex, an East German made in Dresden Pentacon-F that I had purchased in 1958 in Austin, Texas via NY. I went to a German-named store, Foto Lipkau and found that all they sold were expensive Leicas. I then visited a store, not far; on Avenida Venustiano Carranza called Foto Rudiger and spotted an all-black used Asahi Pentax S-3. It was the right choice as its 55mm F-2 lens was compatible with the screw mount of my Pentacon-F.

 I think it is appropriate that I photograph Meyer with this camera and with 100ISO b+w film. Of course I will take my digital Fuji X-E3 (and just in case the Fuji X-E1). With me in my luggage will be my portable Metz studio light (110-220) and a small softbox. I will limit myself to using the 55mm Pentax lens. I wonder how Meyer will shoot me and I am looking forward to the experience.

I have a niece, who lives in Cuernavaca in the state of Morelos, who will pick me up at the airport and drive me to the lovely Coyoacán neighbourhood. There is a special significance to me there as on 8 November 1968, at a judge’s office in the main square I married my Rosemary Elizabeth Healey.

Just because I am 83 does not mean that I have to quit dreaming of new projects.

While I smiled at the idea of this becoming a bookend to my career I plan to keep at it while my good health persists.      

Rosemary had a dresser in our bedroom. It is still there. There are several of her diaries in it and almost every week I find something that startles me and more often than not makes me smile. This time I didn’t. I found this little Radio Shack device. I will have to open the back and check the battery. I have no idea if there is a memory recorded. Our Rebecca was a little girl. She is now 28 and is pretty well out of my life. In this century grandfathers are now just old men.

My constant pursuit of association made me look for my Radio Shack sound level metre. One evening I took it to my youngest daughter’s Cactus Club and I measured 135 decibels. Over a period of time that amount of sound can create hearing problems. I wonder why it is that our Worker’s Compensation Board, now WorkSafeBC, has not corrected this Vancouver idea that loud music with lots of bass is what makes a restaurant possible.

I have taken my sound level metre to the downtown Multiplex and also measured over 120 decibels.

All the above brings (takes me back) to what I now see as a simpler century when the latest could be found at the Radio Shack.

In what will be a soon to happen trip to Mexico City (the official nomenclature for it is now CDMX) I took my Microsoft laptop to EJ Phone Repair on Broadway. The friendly folks there told me that the battery was working just fine and they refreshed my memory on how to connect to WiFi. In Mexico City there is WiFi everywhere.

There is one really good advance in this century. This is WhatsApp and Messenger. Expensive phone calls are not back in that so called “better” century. And then there is that video.

I still miss my Radio Shack.