COBBLER'S PAGE
SPRING has sprung with a riot of colour appearing, the light getting stronger
and longer, the house looks ready for a spring clean having survived another
winter. As 1 look round the sitting room I am aware of corners full of redundant equipment,
well not quite redundant as the technology is still around enabling it to be used. 800+ slides comprise an
AV show, with projectors, amplifiers, speakers etc. to show same. Against
another wall is a long cabinet
containing 100 vinyl records, long play, 45s and even some shellac 78 recordings, and the turntable to play
them on.
A reel-to-reel tape recorder stands by the side of a CD player along with a
stack of tapes and discs. Balanced
on top of two massive speakers (you need large speakers for a big room) is a metal case with a Mamiya C330
and the three lenses to go with it.
If we go upstairs to the spare bedroom we found AV sequences going back
fifteen years. Cupboards full of
mounted 20 x 16 and 15 x 12 prints, at least 1,000. And metres of out-dated colour neg. printing paper
40-inches wide. Mother cupboard holds the redundant CRC Library, with magazines going
back and back.
Yet another cupboard is full of cameras. The darkroom across theyard contains enough chemicals to poison
all the residents of Batley, lots well past their sell-by date (the chemicals not the residents) and four enlargers.
In other words,a very well-equipped darkroom. The collection of these items has taken sixty years to assemble
and represents a lifetime of keen photography.
All of this is still usable and gives me a great deal of pleasure. When I pass my sell-by date it will all become
redundant, worthless and 99% of it will end up in a skip. A few years back many
of these items could have been
sold at a good price. The digital revolution has arrived and taken over.
Being an ‘old photographer’ I am often asked to take a look at the photographic
gear of someone’s deceased
relative, give them a price, get rid of cameras etc. Last week I was even told I would be given five pounds to
take the stuff away! However firm I am with myself, I usually finish up with some item I could not possibly let go
into a skip, thus adding to my overburdened cupboards.
I reckon we have now reached saturation point with our second bedroom now being taken over as a computer
room. The way I see it there are three options:
a) Two of the spare beds will have to go to make more space available; the CRC Library ditto,
b) Move into a bigger house
c) Hire a skip.
An alternative to all those is to carry on as normal and leave the whole lot to someone else to sort out when ’ve gone. After all,
that seems to be the option most photographers go for. I am convinced that Spring is not the right time to do anything
other than to get out and about with the camera and take pictures of this lovely season.
Photographs by Brian showing Springtime in Garsdale. One photo on this page, one on the previous page and
the cover photo.
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