ONE
Today a parcel of books arrived on my doorstep. Yesterday I set up a profile and, for the first time, listed one of my books as publicly available. Blurb. Print on demand. Photography and poetry – possibly surprising for those who only know my arts practice as painting.
I didn't set out to do a book, and yes, there's always a backstory. The question is where to begin.
Photography and poetry. I am surrounded by photographers and I come from a family who treasure photographs. My grandfather was developing own his black & white films from a box brownie back in the 1940's and onward. In the 50's my dad had a Brownie 127 and in the 60's he purchased a 35mm camera in a brown leather case. Actually, it seems they all had thick brown leather cases back then.
Dad's camera was the first one I remember using and I was allowed to take it on a primary school trip to Swan Hill. Mum was a parent helper on the school trip, which may have influenced the decision. I have two photos from that trip, taken on the Kodak Brownie 127 and I remember taking them as though it was yesterday. Surely the 70's wasn't that long ago. One of the photos was a horse drawn vehicle in a shed. The other, a paddle-steamer on the Murray River. The film cost 98 cents to be developed and printed. I still have the negatives in the original paper sleeve complete with photography tips and how to take snapshots with a flashbulb.
Fast forward another decade and I married Brett, who is passionate about the natural environment, wildlife, and photography. Alongside the compact Canon point & shoot camera purchased in my late teens, I learned to use his Nikon FE, then the FE2, although it was always in the background to my other creative pursuits. In 2000 Nikon released the One Touch Zoom 90 autofocus lens shutter (photographers are interested in the tech stuff) and digital at that stage was either much lower quality than film or way beyond our price range. Brett bought me the One Touch film camera and it took a lot of family photos for a few years. During those few years digital improved in quality and became more accessible regarding price, but in the 90's I had taken up drawing and painting, and family life was busy, so the camera had its battery removed and was packed away in a cupboard - for 20 years.
Brett's photography continued to progress, the boys grew into creative young men each with their own creative voice and expression, and each of them handy with a camera. And I pressed in further with art, studying a diploma of Visual Art with a studio major of painting, and with other creative expressions bubbling along beside. A tiny digital camera was sometimes tucked into in my sketching kit or pulled out for special events or projects, and the phone became my quickly accessible go-to camera.
In 2021, when we all had more time at home, I started thinking about film photography and alternative processes of making, developing and printing.
We had some old coloured film in a drawer and I rummaged in the back of a cupboard for the FE and FE2. One had a shutter that didn't work, the other didn't have a working light meter, neither of them had batteries. Not one for taking the easy way, I decided to set the camera on manual and use a light meter app on my phone to calculate the exposure.
On collecting my first batch of prints from our local camera shop, where they still develop film in house with a C-41 process and print on silver-halide photographic paper, I was very happy with the interesting results. Brett was less impressed – the difference in our artistic aims – with me being more interested in evocative and interesting expression, and less in technical aspects or sharp focus.
While the I really liked the feel of our 1980’s Nikons, maybe my compact auto everything One Touch camera was worth a try. I had been reluctant because I thought it was too new to be interesting. It was only released in 2000 which I thought was recent. Turns out, it is old enough to be called 'vintage', and have a little bit of cool factor. I've been enjoying picking up the camera and film again, as another means of visual expression in my arts practice.
In my next few blog / letters I shall consider the backstory of my poetic writing, my ONE location project, and why I made a book.
If you would like to preview ONE, it is listed in the Blurb online bookstore, search for Sharon Roberts or use the link.
Blurb Bookstore "ONE" Sharon Roberts
For the time being I have made all pages accessible in the preview so you can see the whole book rather than just the first fifteen pages.
If you would like to purchase a copy it is available as soft cover print on demand, or if you see me in person I have some copies here.
Until next time,
Sharon
Our daughter loves photography and was given some older equipment to play around with. I love your photos shared here...especially the atmospheric ones, that some might think are failures. Very cool! 🙏 💖