Places I remember

Photograph entitled "Winter Beetles" by Colin Campbell


There are places I remember
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain

In My Life - the Beatles

One of the things I like about photography is that it can capture, in an instant, certain elements of a place and time. That's what the medium does. The photographer chooses a position from which to record the scene visually, sets up (or leaves set) the camera's controls, trips the shutter and an image is recorded. Sometimes the setup is a bit more complicated but that's basically it. When the image is converted, either through what these days seems the ancient and almost mystical (alchemical?) chemical processes that produce slides or negatives and prints (which I used to do for fun and profit), or converted into pixels that may be viewed on a monitor or screen, hopefully you take in information and you get some feeling from the image. Of course what is seen is experienced differently by different viewers.

It's interesting for me that sometimes too the image becomes the trigger for the memory of the place. The photograph included here is one of those examples. If I had to hazard a guess I would say that this image was shot something like 30 years ago. The place, the wrecker's yard and the Volkswagon graveyard you see before you, is long gone. The shot was taken just north of Toronto, Ontario, on the outskirts (then) of the city of Barrie. I still think the image holds up well. I can still remember bits and pieces of the day and of the site and thinking about how to try to get the exposure just right. Snow isn't always easy to record.

I always have liked to take photographs that have an element of humour or that are visually striking in some way. I think this is both.