TRAVEL
THREE GENERATIONS OF PHOTOGRAPHERS
April 14, 2017When I turned 21, my Dad gave me his Pentax Spotmatic. It was a camera he'd had since he was 21. This was the camera he'd honed his own amateur photography skills on as a young man, and when children came along, it was the camera that documented our family's life.
That camera was my sidekick. I studied journalism and entered my cadetship with my Dad's camera by my side, using it almost every day. I lived and worked in Central Western NSW, and most weekends I'd take that camera road-tripping and snap off reels of 35mm colour film - always a sucker for the gorgeous autumn light.
When my grandmother passed away last year, my Dad found my grandfather's camera, a Canon Canonet. Like the camera Dad passed to me, it was in immaculate condition, with the original manual and even a couple of spare flash bulbs.
I'm now custodian of both cameras and am yet to master my Pa's camera (these photos were taken on the rock platform at Swansea with my own digital compact). I've put a roll of film through the Canonet, but nothing was exposed. The shutter button's not quite right and I'll need to find someone more familiar with the model and era of camera than I. I've also got my Gran's Kodak Junior 620 to play with (though 620 format film is hard to find). The family story is she was a terrible photographer, yet this camera, with monogrammed leather case, has survived.
I've seen only a handful of the photos my Pa took, and they're mostly shots of my Dad and Aunt as children. I'm not even sure they were shot on this camera. Dad would have been a young teen about the time my Pa bought his camera. These photos were taken at Swansea, on the NSW coast, just south of Newcastle. It's an old holiday location and one my Gran and Pa would have passed through on their caravan trips. I like to think the camera got an airing on those adventures.
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