I have been told my entire life that death moves in groups of three and in my experience that seems to hold fairly true.
During the pandemic I lost a friend, and my brother-in-law lost his father and uncle which in a weird indirect way was the catalyst that led to me returning to photography.
I made it a point that year to go the extra mile for my nephews and nieces during the holidays and I had just landed my dream job and for the first time in my life was able to take everyone on a massive family vacation to Sea World. I didn’t have a lot growing up and I don’t have any children of my own, but I wanted to do what I could to try to distract them from the shitty year they had just had, losing an uncle and grandfather.
It was during this time of reflection and while I was editing the photobook of the photos from the trip that it occurred to me how very little anyone in my life documented memories. It seemed that sometime around 2005-2006 when digital cameras and the internet became more mainstream society as a whole just abandoned print photography. Growing up my grandmother and great grandmother always had a camera around so much of our childhoods were in boxes in my mother’s closet.
It really started to bother me. Almost every photo that I took from 2004-2008 was posted to myspace from a phone camera and have since been lost forever. I have a few folders of images from my digital cameras and for the most part anything I posted in the Facebook era I have. But that’s a pretty good chunk of time missing. And when it came to family photos, they were non-existent. My siblings just trusting that google will be there forever and that the pictures will always be there. I, don’t share such optimism. What about when the bombs drop and the lines to the internet are cut? I had to find a solution.
So, after about 30 minutes of research and a fresh letter of credit from B&H photo, I purchased my Canon Rebel T7 kit, A Canon Scanner, and a Canon CP-1500 4×6 photo printer.
I had some experience with cameras in high school as I was part of the paper and took a photojournalism class. My grandmothers also encouraged me to take photos as a child. I started with a Polaroid, moving on to one of those Kodak 110 candy bar type cameras, and eventually into the digital camera era when my grandmother gifted me a Kodak DC3200 for Christmas my Sr. year of high school. In 2006 she also bought me a Canon A590is digital camera, the nicest I had owned up until a few months ago. Around the time that she passed away I entered what would be a decade or more of depression and I put the camera down. I didn’t own a smart phone for a huge part of this time so I can’t entirely say that it was smart phone cameras that killed it for me, but they did play a major role in why I didn’t feel the need to replace that A590 when it was stolen from me.
Since I got the T7, I have become addicted to photography, and I have purchased several more cameras and printers. It has been a long time since I have been able to put my mind to something that has some kind of meaning and printing the photos into the real world just feels like the right thing to do. It also gives me space to clear my mind and escape when things are bad.
This week has been another one of those weeks where loss comes in threes. My little sister is currently dealing with the loss of her mother, my best friend’s mother and a mentor and lifelong friend passed away, and I also learned that another mentor and friend of mine passed away. Cancer sucks.
Now that the words are out of the way, these photos were taken last Saturday afternoon right after I had learned about the first passing. I felt an urge to return home, or the closest place I can now go to the land I grew up on. This little lake just a short walk from my backyard growing up. It was exactly what I needed to clear my mind. Looking back at all of the images and knowing now how the 48 hours that followed would be. I think this image is a good tribute.
It also took me a bit longer than normal to edit these and post them anywhere but here is a collection of the photos from the walk around the lake. I used to love spending my afternoons here, but never really appreciated the beauty before.
Okay enough words for one night
-Lonnie
