Photography Thinks
My friend Paul Berch is running for office. A knowledgeable lawyer, committed humanist and family man, he brings needed tools to the legislative fray. He has fought battles for his clients and compromised when necessary. He will be as effective as a legislator.
So, we heard that the shelter in Springfield ran out of food. The shelter near our apartment in Greenfield isn’t doing so badly but could always use some of everything. Whaddaya need? Juice, oil, towels, etc. So, we brought them the above and three pizza and some soda. Got thanks we didn’t deserve. Thank you for the chance to meet and talk.
You gotta believe how hard it is to get a job that offers some future. People don’t choose to live in these group homes. Getting out of them is a challenge.
Some days you do and some days you don’t. Cannot predict what the shoots entail or how you feel about them or yourself when you finish. Different subjects create different emotions and require different skills. One in a studio. One on the street. One in a store.
So, here I am, 65 years old, wondering what the end game will bring. Taking a hard look at myself in the camera, feeling the cold pain of my failures and the warm glow of the successes. Recently celebrated my 29th Anniversary with Sharon. Still not enough years to know her well, yet alone myself. Starting a new career in art and photography. Who knows?
How many people can say that when they take their car in for service and the service manager says you need a new one of these and a new one of these, you actually believe him and order the parts? How many of you can say that when you take the car in and they say they have repaired it, that you think the car is going to be fine and the cost was fair? And, how many of you go to a place where if it isn’t they make it right? Well, I can.
Not so easy to shoot a portrait of a family in their residence. People have stuff to do. Dad has to hay. Kids have to play. And Mom, who has a responsible job outside the home, has to drive the kids to Brattleboro so the grandparents can take them to Connecticut for a short vacation. Cannot stay too long. Have to keep the camera and the models focused. Rearrange the furniture. Set up the lights. Meter. Color card. Shoot. And get out. It always helps if the family wants to be photographed and if they are sweethearts. You can see from the expressions they like to be together and that they are a family.
So, you go to a class expecting some instruction. Heisler appears with a raft of cameras. He plays with them. Shows you some of his work and then dares you to go out and shoot to kill, just like he does.
“I won’t keep this a secret,” he says. Someone taught him, mentored him and opened doors to the universe of photography that he gleefully walked through.
They be his babies. He shoots with them; fixes and repairs them; and loves them for what they should and could do.
Metalsmiths shape metal by hitting it after it has been heated in a furnace. An ancient art, it has probably been around since the Hittites, a 14th century bce group that hung out in an area which is now Turkey. Without metalsmiths, there may not have been wars, agribusiness or beauty accessories. The Morrell family, Dad Leigh and Son Justin, practice the craft, today, at Morrell Metalsmiths, relying on the same skills and knowledge as the first people with hammers to produce high quality decorations for home and office.
