Each decade in my life seems to leave media behind.
When I was young I loved watching my dad cut vinyl records, the long thread coiling up on the floor. Our young voices were recorded that way. Those are in our basement. I also played with a wire recorder during therapy sessions, supposedly needed to treat my 10-year-olds nightmares. I never got to take those home.
High school photos (120 negatives) get printed, but left behind as I went to college
In college I recorded my ‘letters’ home onto 1/4″ tape, (good old Wollensak, which were then stored by my dad. I just recently got my tape deck together to make a digital copies. Very few pictures were taken during those years except for trips.
In my graduate days, I used all kinds of media. For research with sweet baby Heida on language learning I borrowed a 1″ wide tape recorder and later a more standard 1/2″ reel video recorder. I also set up a video room for my encounter group research as well [pic]. Most of my beloved 60’s music went onto 1/4″ tape, copied from rental records. For pictures I mostly shot with a Rollei-flex 6×6, B&W.
Part of the pleasure when we built a studio behind Buena Avenue came from creating a small darkroom. I experimented with printing in color, but the process was finicky and the chemicals stinky. Still, I worked hard to get nice prints of our sweet Allegra.
Dusty film and videos are part of my life as well. I had taken 16mm film of Heida in the 60’s, but it was quite expensive.
For Allegra and Jeremy we shot 8mm (silent), super 8 (poor sound), then later analogue video and finally digital video.
Three times I challenged myself by preparing ‘video’ compendiums of each child as they turned 21. For Heida, I had to project old film to re-shoot onto video, editing in-camera. I don’t know if that film is viewable in 2014. For Allegra there was a lot of hunting for footage and converting formats. For Jeremy, thankfully, the conversions were easier so I could concentrate on the storytelling.
My digital photography starting in 2003 hasn’t gotten dusty, but that’s another story.
8/30/2004