In 1978 I took a photography class. I failed with a solid “F”. I made no effort to learn from the photography instructor. He was a hack who coached the football team; photography was his teaching chore. He took lousy and uninspired snapshots. He taught his students the same thing. I was not interested.I stole (actually borrowed without permission) a hardback art book called Aperture 78 from the reference material intended for the class. The work of Joel Meyerowitz was featured on its pages. Meyerowitz inspired me to start my life long love affair with photography. I had forgotten about the magazine, and about its impact on my young life, until my recent visit to Bookman Used Books. The book looked like an old friend to me, I did not know why. I paid $7.95 and took it home.
I spent the day today trying to recover from a bad case of jet lag. In my idle time, I reread Aperture 78. I don’t remember when it clicked for my, but suddenly long lost memories came flooding back in. I had spent endless hours in a darkroom and even more hours stalking images with a borrowed camera trying to produce images like Meyerowitz. High School is largely a blur for me, a hard knock on the head and many long years have chased everything but the highlight events from my memory. I remember learning to love photography now. I remember studying this book as if it held some kind of absolute truth. My teacher told me I was wasting my time – he suggested that perhaps I should take a shop class. (I had already failed shot by then)
I tried to recreate the look and the unique color of Meyerwitz’s images. In some cases succeeding, in others failing miserably. It did not matter. I had fun learning. I moved on to other things in life, but I never lost my love for creating a good image. It was nice to recapture that magic today.
I checked in on Mererowitz while writing this post. He has remained active and very productive. He was at ground zero on 9/11. His stunning images are well worth your time.
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