Last night, as I was watching the images on TV about
events in Istanbul, I seemed to recognize a monument on Taksim Square. And I was
surprised, since the only time I have been in Istanbul was 55 years ago, then a
young lad in shorts, buzz cut hair, and a Brownie camera in my hands!
… When my mother passed, I discovered how much she
had kept in boxes, bags, and small suitcases. Nothing was thrown away from the
first poem I wrote, my first camera the Brownie I took on that trip to
Istanbul, and miles of negative strips of film I had taken during my teenage
years.
I knew where the Brownie and the negatives were, so
this morning decided to look at these strips.
It is an amazing feeling to spend hours looking
through a magnifying loop at frames after frames and somehow learn more about
myself. Perhaps it was a self-conducted introspection where decades from my
early life, in the shape of still moments on 127mm film negatives paraded at a
variable pace. It was variable since I stopped on some frames longer because of
faint memories emerged from forgotten corners of my right brain.
… Many of the film strips are irreversibly damaged
by time and poor storage. But one frame caught my attention. It is of the
central memorial monument in the Square and the angle of capture is quite
dramatic. Especially for a 5 year old boy holding a Brownie! But while the
monument is still there today, I am curious if the bank building in the background
is. Could this be a “historic” photo?
No matter, I was able to scan the negative and
decided to post it. This may be one of my first street photographs, so in that
sense, after 60 years, it is historic for me….
July 16, 2016
© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2016
PS/ A year or so ago I bought a film negative scanner to digitally
archive the miles of negative strips my mom and then I have kept. It is not my
favorite way of archiving, but calculated that if I were to try printing each
strip’s frames in my darkroom an average of 4 hours a day, I would need to live
to the ripe age of 321 to complete the project. And, even if I do, I am not
sure they will still be making darkroom chemicals and photographic paper in the
year 2286!!
PS2/ Here is my Baby Brownie Special, made by Kodak in Rochester NY. I fing the 60 years' old dust on it absolutely charming!
