worth a shot

  I was going through some old photographs the other day, and a few caught my attention. Those caught my attention not because of who was in the picture but rather the composition of the picture. It came as a sort of revelation to me. Not being one that has any artistic talent of my own or any special appreciation for art in general it is new to me. Could this mean that I'm maturing? Nah, I'm just getting older every day is all. But I have been inspired by seeing photographs taken by some of Facebook friends. One lady in particular takes wonderful shots of the ocean and bay. They are the areas of my youth, the place where I grew up and often a sense of nostalgia sweeps over me when I see them. Just shots of nature that capture a moment in time but are timeless. The scene could be as easily from the seventeenth century as from the twenty first. There is something timeless about the shore. 

  I enlarged a few old pictures and posted them to Facebook. Others were very kind in complimenting me on those pictures. It does appear that others genuinely enjoyed seeing them. It is always satisfying when that happens, a guilty little pleasure. We all like to get those likes, loves and emojis. I've heard for some it becomes an obsession. The pictures I enlarged were of my great grandfather, a man I knew and loved. One shows him sitting with an old friend just having a chat. It is that picture that inspired me a bit, awakened this idea of my pictures as a form of art. To be clear that particular picture was taken by a professional photographer and the vast majority of mine certainly wouldn't be. I just have the family photographs taken by family and friends. The cameras used would range from the Brownie box camera to a 35MM Nikon. The thing is, by far, the bulk of those photographs are in black and white. 

  It's one of those things I had never given much thought to. I went to the internet for a brief bit of research on the topic. It says color photography was available to the general public as early as the 1930's but generally reserved for the wealthier people for the obvious reason. It wasn't until the late 1960's color photos hit the mainstream and became the normal thing. That made me realize something, my childhood was in black and white. That was true with photographs and television. I'm no expert on such things but I have older photographs that are on tin, ones on cardboard, and various types of photograph papers. My computer asks questions like is the picture in black and white or is it greyscale? I'm uncertain what all that means. I have digitized a great number of those old pictures, along with some documents of interest. The hope there is that they are preserved for future generations. But I have some doubts about that as the technology changes. Our eyes work the same way they did since the beginning of time, but the method of decoding digital images is constantly changing. Could you play an eight track tape today? That's what I'm thinking about. Yeah, it is possible if you really make an effort. Having the band play the song live is far easier, like holding the picture in your hand.

  I got to thinking about this and an idea formed. As I said I have zero artistic ability I'm aware of that. It doesn't prevent me from trying occasionally, however. I feel like I do better with words than I do with paints, pens or pencils. I type almost everything these days because my penmanship has never been a strong point. It's insurance that others will be able to read whatever it is I have written. This artistic project I have in mind is to use those black and white images to record my youth. My idea is to simply print select photographs and assemble them in some order to tell a story. The people in the picture will not be the center of focus. As with most family photographs from those "dark" ages of black and white they almost always have a person or a group of people in them. You didn't waste film just taking pictures of stuff, not unless you were wealthy or trying to become a professional photographer. The objective back then was to capture family events or moments of some significance. So, I'm looking at this plan as a challenge. I want to shift the focus from the people to the background. 

  I'm thinking that is what the artistic people would call the composition of the picture. I'm thinking it will be challenging simply because of the way those photographs were taken. Almost always posed with a background as plain and simple as can be. There weren't many spontaneous pictures taken. The early cameras made that a necessity, you had to stand still! My parents would yell at us kids about that, stand still while I get this picture, look at the camera, smile. It is something that is a bit of a pet peeve of mine, these posed photographs. I much prefer photographs taken without the knowledge of the one being photographed. I want to capture them the way they look. The candid shots are the best ones in my book. Those are the ones I will be looking for in my collection of old pictures and they are scarce. Those are what I hope to create. I'm thinking of a photo book with footnotes. The picture itself is on the page but you have to go to the footnotes if you are interested in learning more. A picture is worth a thousand words, that's what I've been told. If I can manage that with the selection of my photographs the footnotes shouldn't be necessary. I'm setting my sights a bit high perhaps but it's worth a shot, no pun intended.