Me And Photography (Part 2) - How It Went On



from a Silette slide, 1967

In the late 60s the Agfa Silette only rarely kicked into action, mostly at church youth group retreats. I remember that I  was keenly interested in taking good photographs the moment I had a camera in my hand. That's why I can't understand today that the camera stayed home most of the time...





from a Silette slide, 1967

While preparing to leave Germany to spend time in Canada I realized that I needed to take a camera along. The Silette belonged to the family, to take it was out of the question.

The vogue of the day were the extremely basic instamatic cameras with their easy to handle cassette film. I bought the cheapest one around, a no-name brand distributed by a major warehouse: It set me back about two dollars. But just before leaving I was ridden by doubt whether the purchased device would be up to the task. My mom reminded me of a used camera that we had been given and that noone had used: why didn't I take that one along. I had never seen the camera - or I had seen it but just wasn't interested at the time. It was a Bilora Bella that took 6 by 6 cm negatives on 120 roll film. Sure, why not, I took along that one too. Ahead was a 10 day voyage from Bremerhaven to Montreal.





Bilora Bella 66

What happened? I still feel ashamed about this. I took about half the 120 roll film and a few Instamatic pictures and let both films sit in the cameras for more than five years!

After digging up these cameras from the prevailing basement chaos I was adamant though to have these films processed! Needless to say that some color shifting and other signs of deterioration of the exposed material had occurred . But pictures I got after all!

 


 

Instamatic camera and film cassette

MS Alexandr Pushkin, 1969

 

Mid-Atlantic

 

On the bridge with Boris, the popular Entertainment Officer

 

 

After almost two years in Canada it was time for a summer vacation back home in Hamburg. Since I had really fallen in love with Vancouver and British Columbia I wanted to show some slides in Germany. At that time I had completely forgotten about the cameras I came with. They wouldn't have been of much use for the task either. A friend helped by lending out a 35 mm reflex camera, a Russian built Zenit. This camera was often compared to a T 35 tank, it was massive, heavy and cumbersome. The Helios lens had a good reputation, but there was no light meter built in or attached. Given my inexperience with slide photography and the much narrower exposure latitude involved, the useful harvest of my picture taking efforts was embarassingly meagre.