Desperately Trying To Capture Some Memories

Photograph By MRS. LOCKHART C. PAGE

A friend once wrote to me, "When I write, I am desperately trying to capture some memories with my pen.", they were quite proud of the quote and rightfully so.  I think about it often when I sit down to write.  So many of the memories in the minds of men fail to make it to the outside world.  Not that putting them on paper or in this day and age on a hard drive will ensure their longevity, just that it will give them a chance.  I remember talking to my uncle, who is a great photographer, about the pictures that my grandmother, also a great photographer, took.  "When she died", he said, "We burned almost all of the photographs.  When I die, you'll just erase my hard drives.".  It was said in jest, but as so many things said in jest, there was a sad touch of truth to it.

Part of what prompted this writing was my project to scan all of my old SLR photos in order to archive them on my network drives.  A lot of them wouldn't even be worth keeping, if not for the subjects.  The special part of the project came when my mother lent me sixteen of Grandma Page's photos.  She mostly shot in black and white and always developed her own.  On the back of each picture she would stamp, "PLEASE CREDIT Photograph By MRS. LOCKHART C. PAGE".  The magic was not on the back of the pictures though.  Seeing her pictures now, through my adult eyes, I realize why I purchased my first SLR at fourteen.  Why I wanted to get into photography in the first place.  Her photos captured not just the moments; in her photos you didn't see the subject, you knew them, you understood them.  Unfortunately Some genes do not make it down through the generations, so my ability to capture people in life's amazing little moments, through the lens, is barely existent.  I still love nature and macro photography but barring exception I never feel I capture the true essence of people in a moment.

This is where my writing began, If I could not effectively capture faces and emotions from light to paper, I would try to capture them in ink.  That was years ago and unfortunately both disciplines began to whither without the nourishment of time.  Now I realaize time is not something you plan or pay attention to, the more you do, the more things you get done and the slower time will be for you.

So now I've scanned Grandma Page's photos.  She had captured memories with her camera, that out survived her, out survived the fire.  From her has come a son who is a great photographer a grandson who struggles at it and a great granddaughter that just may have the eye needed.  I'm sure this won't be the last post about Grandma Page, she died when I was not even a teenager, but like her photos, her influence has faced and overcome many trials and the memories still survive.
PLEASE CREDIT
Lives By
MRS' LOCKHART C. PAGE