One week in Malta – where the weather could not be more different from Scotland if it tried. 25C at night minimum and 34C by day. I can see two building workers on a rooftop doing plaster work and I can’t understand how they don’t faint with the exertion and the heat. Humans are resilient.
In this week, speaking of humans, a good friend that I lost touch with but managed to speak to just before we came here, sadly died from cancer. Another good friend that I did not lose touch with was blessed with a granddaughter, his first grandchild. A tourist died not far from here when Stromboli erupted- the last I heard several were missing. One vulcanologist is warning of a potential tsunami threat to Italy and Sicily. Flash floods in several places, two earthquakes in California, record heatwaves in Alaska ……..the great cycle of life and death on this tiny planet goes on.
I grieve for my friend, I berate myself for losing touch even as I remember that relationships are two sided, I rejoice for the birth of a child and I’m reminded that even after a few days I miss my own granddaughters, who are real people – they have no sides or hidden agendas unlike many adults.
And all this while on holiday.
I have with me one camera and one lens. It is an 85 year old Leica III (black paint) with a nickel Elmar 50mm collapsible lens. It is 20 years older than me but it moves better and more quietly. I do not have large hands but it seems to have been designed to be carried by me alone. People say they are difficult to load with film. Some trimming of the leader is required but we have to “suffer for our Art” do we not?
I know that Nasos has some opinions about film so I tease him gently in emails and say that it is “heresy” for me to put a 24 exposure (£1 per roll) colour print film in a venerable old Leica and he lets me have it with both barrels! In reality I don’t care what film I put in so long as I get results that are usable- but it’s just a bit of email “banter” (fun).
So he writes about his Hassy and the 50mm lens, with a small problem, that I sold him and it makes me feel good to know that he is happy with it because I value the human aspect far more than the equipment/value aspect.
While this world continues flying through Space at whatever impossible speed, even as it rotates about its axis with its signature wobble so creating seasons, while huge forces are generated by tectonic plates causing volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, while people struggle with weather, while friends come and go and lose touch or make contact, while children are born, here we are still admiring little boxes that contain tiny wheels and levers that are over 50 years old and (arguably) out of date, because they take photos that are mostly just an aid to memory.
What is a camera? Maybe it’s just an inanimate friend. In my first musing I hinted at a character flaw of mine. I sometimes sell cameras – there it is, out in the open! So someone told me I’m not a collector or an enthusiast, but a dealer – yet I don’t feel like a dealer. And when I sell them it’s usually to help fund another purchase and I always regret it. That’s why I always take pictures of them and share them on Flickr. But if they are friends then how can they be sold? There seems to be no sense to it.
What is a friend? That is a bigger question!
Gordon Christie
pnasium 