Its been a long day. Particularly because I've traveled at least thirty miles via metro, and walked another five. I was up and down trying to get a few things accomplished. Mainly, buying a few new dress shirts (i'm preparing for winter) and I had to get an SLR for my Cinematography class. I checked Craigslist and found a popular older SLR, the Minolta SRT 101. It has been used to take some pretty awesome pictures over the years, I was hooked by how it looked. I love those rugged, ancient looking cameras that can be used as a blunt instrument of death in a fit of rage. Well not really, but I like a camera that represents a former zeitgeist. Lower functionality, more praciticality. When I hold this camera in my hands (its a whopping 1.5 pounds) I feel like I MUST go forth and document life. I'm eager to buy some film and take a few pictures, but I really have no idea how to use the camera. As a film student, I've learned a few of the basics about photography, including f-stops and footcandles, which are forms of light measurement... and apeture and that stuff. But I haven't done much hands on stuff. So in the selection of my SLR I wanted something almost beastly. A device so veneered by the photographic institutions that it would make me something I am not right now, A capable photographer.
The camera was used by Eugene Smith (a photography GOD ) to shoot photos of the Minamata situation which was a mercury poisoining situation in Japan a few decades ago. One of his pictures, (taken with MY camera!) is here. The picture is "Tomoko bathing with Mother", a very disturbing and beautiful photograph of an unharmed japanese mother bathing her 16 year old daughter who is crippled by mercury poisoning, blind and horribly deformed. Check out that picture here :
http://www.geocities.com/minoltaphotographyw/williameugenesmith.html
The picture disturbs me in a very genuine way. There is so much love in the eyes of the mother, and something else in the daughter's eyes I can't really sense... but I feel it, and it doesn't feel good.
In a little while I'll be looking for some online manuals, and reading up on the basic of photography. I know Howard has a lab that is free for use by students, so I might even try my hand at developing some of my photos. I'm heading off to Wonderland now (the title of an as yet unfinished novel ) to have a few drinks with friends. I'm tempted to bring the beast with me, but I doubt they'd let me in with it. They might think its a fire hazard or something.
My inner nerd is really smiling right now. :)
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