I have always loved to look at pictures...ever since I was a little girl.
My father was an avid photographer of both wildlife and nature as well as the 'wildlife' at home. Needless to say we have boxes upon boxes of pictures, photo albums galore and reels and reels of home movies. It was always a big production when the Zeiss Icon came out and we had to wait for what seemed like hours for him to adjust the light meter...then the posing would begin. Living up in the north without TV had it's good points. We always looked forward to movie night. His projector would be working overtime entertaining the whole family. Granted, Anne and I complained when the 'nature' films were shown....how boring watching a silent bird sitting in a tree or a flower swaying gently in a breeze. We wanted the good stuff...camping film, us children hamming it up for the camera and mom looking so prim and proper...all without sound. It was devastating when the projector light bulb blew (and Dad didn't have an extra one) or when the film strip snapped and he had to spend the time to splice it before we could finish watching. As we grew older we watched them less and less. The last time I watched these movies was thirteen years ago...a week before my mother died. I think it was for a reason that we choose that particular time to gather the whole family, including my children to watch for what would be the last time. My mother had a chance to see her family life on film before she left us.
Over the years I have flipped through all the photo albums endless times...not only the ones which my father put together but the ones I have made of my own family. I have gone through the boxes time and again enjoying our lives on Kodak paper. A few years ago I sorted my boxes of photos and put together one each for my children. They are put into keepsake boxes for each to take into their own homes. Eventually they will inherit the photographic history of our family which my father so lovingly spent countless hours preserving.
I have often wondered what his reaction would be to the digital camera, photo sharing sites, the ability to edit, crop, discard with a touch of a button. I'd like to believe he would have embraced the concept and ran with it. He would have had a Flickr account and proudly displayed his work for the world to see. He would have loved to spend hours clicking from one photo site to the next admiring your photos as I do. Yes...that's me checking out your photos, counted as one of your 'viewed' numbers...after all, I've always loved to look at pictures.
