Fascinating story, Lasse. Good to hear from you. I hope we get to see some of your uncle's photography when yo u've sorted it out and made some scans. Happy holidays, Paul -------------- Original message ---------------------- From: "Lasse Karlsson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Hi all, > > Sorry, this got much longer than intended. > > Two years ago my uncle (my mother's brother) passed away. Peacefully, at > around 84, I believe. He was a photographer. > (Not by profession - he was a "radio-telegraphist" (literally translated > from Swedish - if you know what his profession would be called in English, > please report (or in German, French, Spanish and Italian too). He'd be in > charge of tele communications for instance on a ship. However I believe he > only did one trip in the mid 50:s. He got too sea sick to carry on at sea! > :) So instead of travelling the high seas (which a lot of Alanders did and > do, since international shipping is and has long been a major industry of > Aland) he took a job at the local "Coastal-radio station" (literally > translated). I am now happy he did, since this meant that he'd shoot a lot > of pictures locally in Aland and his and my home town, Mariehamn.) > > After his wife also passed away last year, I first told his daughter/my > cousin, that all his picture archives, negatives and prints etc., MUST be > taken care of and I also offered me to do it. I actually had been > emphasizing this already with my uncle (who appreciated my thoughts - but he > was already starting to lose some of his intellectual capacity) as well as > with my aunt/his wife, who to my horror first gave me some ambigious > statements, making me wonder if she actually had disposed of it all. She had > at least at times expressed thoughts like "I'm so tired of all his photos > and those things, I think I'm going to throw it all away...". (Sheer horror > at the thought - not only did we, the family, know of his unique family > photos of which we had been given many copies, but I also knew/thought/hoped > there'd also be pictures of great local documentary value in his archives.) > Luckily, it eventually turned out that his photo archives had been preserved > after all... (Sigh of relief... right? :) ) > > Since also his daughter, living abroad, at first when having to deal with > emptying and selling her parents' house, didn't seem to care that much about > the photos or my enthusiasm for them, I now realize that all the time up > till now, the question about my uncle's photo archives, actually has meant > some considerable concern, almost stress, to me. > Anyway, during the last couple of months I have been helping her cousin > clearing her (family) house, as it was sold. I guess I slowly gained the > trust and understanding for my views on the photos, since I now have been > given my uncle's photo archives (at least as a deposition and for getting > them sorted out, cleaned up and making some sort of an inventory of them). I > also got a lot of other old camera and dark room stuff, some a little > interesting but most of which I will have to find another home for. > > My uncle - Erik, by the way - had the good taste of early on - that is in > the early 1950s - choosing to shoot color slides, at a time when not too > many people did so around here. > For a couple of weeks now I have spent most of the days and nights doing > everything that possibly can be made to the most important part of the > archives, that is sorting out and cleaning his earliest slides. (From all > his some 60 active years there will be thousands of slides, and thousand of > negatives). > > Well, regarding his archives there is indeed a lot more that could have been > desired. Listen to this: I have yet to come across one single note of date, > place or persons depicted to any of his slides, negatives or single > photographs! > Not one single peace of information anywhere! :) (This makes for some > interesting intellectual detective work on my part. In a way I don't mind, > since it is very interesting. On the other hand I'd really want to spend the > time on my own projects. However, I'm starting to think there will be at > least an exhibition of his photos. Maybe a book, but I'm not sure about how > to finance such a project.) > > Yet, he was very well aware of what was considered to be even the most basic > method of filing negatives and slides. From late 1940s onwards he'd > subscribe to photography magazines where such things repeatedly were > discussed, just as we are discussing it on this list. He was in his daily > work as well as in his capacity as a local politician, very much aware of > the necessity of properly filing documents of all kinds. Yet, regarding this > one personally very important part of his life, he never applied even the > most basic filing method. My guess is that he simply never got started, > although always thinking he'd have to, and in the end never got about to > start while all new pictures added mounted to an even bigger and too big a > task... > > The only thing there (thankfully) is, are quite a few albums (still only a > small part of his output) that he, on my insisting it, started to put > together very late in his years (but as I indicated, he was already starting > to lose his capacity to do it completely) where many of his later prints > were sorted, but only roughly by subject, year or maybe a month. > > Anyway, I see that this message is getting too long. I actually just wanted > to tell you more about his actual photography and what an experience, on > many different levels, it has been and is, dealing with this legacy of this > one 20th century man's life's output of photographs. > > Maybe you can relate to this story, since I guess most of you, already > having assembled a great amount of photographic documents of various kind, > or on your way to do so, every now and then, just like I do, ask yourself > what to do with your archives or what will become of them when you're not > longer around. > > Maybe I'll get back to his actual photographs later. > > Thanks for reading, > Lasse > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions.
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