Photography

I'm reading After Emily, about the woman who was first to edit Emily Dickinson's poems. There are many black and white photos.

Besides the story, the photos intrigued me. Naturally they were black and white, both because of the time they were taken and the printing process.

Fashion of other periods can tell us a lot about the period. The long, modest dresses, the frou-frous, the hats, etc. all speak to a different time. What I would like to see is the color, impossible in retrospect.

I have photos of me in at various stages in childhood. I remember that the Easter outfit with the blue jacket, the red t-shirt and red-plaid shorts, etc. although the photos are black and white.

Photography has come a long way. We've gone through Polaroid's instant photographs in color or black and white, depending on the film used. There have been high-end cameras used by professionals to Kodak Brownies.

As a cub reporter I was given a Graflex to use. At 85 pounds, I had trouble holding the camera still so the paper bought me a Minolta Autocord.

It looked like a Brownie, and one person who I photographed complained to my editor, that they had sent a kid with a Kodak and he was a busy man. He asked for extra copies and original when the photo appeared on the front page. My editor, who didn't like his cubs being insulted, forgot to fill the request.

Taking photos for the paper scared me until the contact sheet was printed in case I failed. Only in later life did I start taking a camera everywhere and taking tons of photos. I never take people staring at the camera, but look for story photos and things other people wouldn't take--sometimes this is good, sometimes the photos can be as boring as those people staring at a camera or worse staring at a camera in front of a monument.

When my camera was stolen, I replaced it with a middle scale Nikon. It lasted ten days before the shutter jammed and I finally, finally, finally, switched to my phone camera. Since the problem with the Nikon isn't covered by warranty, I plan to send it to the CEO of Nikon and point out that that level of service is not satisfactory and I want it replaced. A camera should last more than 10 days. I will point out that people are not buying cameras and using phones in their place. I doubt if I will go back to carrying a camera regardless of what the CEO does.

In place of the staid black and white photos where people had to hold poses for what seemed like forever, our new cameras/phones take multiple photos in seconds, capturing a story. We can play with the images getting different effects. Where once people were paid to paint photos for color, we now have all the color imaginable available.

I still want to know the color of the dresses in those long-ago photos.