TexasGirl Photography

Many moons ago, when I lived in New York, I saw an exhibition of Lee Friedlander’s photography at the Met Museum. (Lucky me: I could walk there, and I had a membership!) I was already a fan of his work, but these photos really grabbed me, and I was attentive to the fact that he was using a different camera for many of them: the Hasselblad SWC.

Fast forward a few years, to me living in Texas again and talking photography with my Dad. Did I know he had a SWC? Maybe, I really can’t remember. But my interest in it had been heightened thanks to what I’d seen at the Met and my relatively new love affair with the Hasselblad 500cm he’d given me (he traded with someone on eBay for it: imagine!!). I begged to be allowed to use his Superwide and he reluctantly let me, under his close supervision.

I have vivid memories of that day: going downtown with Dad (our favorite place to photograph together) and dragging along the kiddo. He kept an eagle eye on me, which was fair enough since I have a reputation for dropping cameras.

Fast forward again to this past Christmas: to my delight and surprise, after years of him teasing me with the notion, Dad GAVE ME the SWC! Some of you know that I’ve longed for that camera, even to be allowed to borrow it. Don’t worry, I immediately purchased a sturdy strap for it.

I remain astounded that I own this mythical camera, and of course it means so much more to me than if I had just bought it, since it belonged to my Dad (courtesy of my Mom, who gave it to him). Keeping things in the family, preserving lines, these things are important to me. I don’t know exactly what I will create with this beautiful beast, my road-tripping days being over for the foreseeable future, but I have of course taken it for a spin around my ‘hood. Here are the results of two test rolls!

I’m blown away by the SWC – you’d have thought I would have expected this reaction, right? But it had been a decade since I got to try it out, and I had no idea that even indoors hand-held at 1/15 it would produce beautiful photographs. The sky looks so nice, too, since my far-more-intelligent-than-me father kept a yellow filter on it. Why am I so lazy about putting on filters? Why do I continually dig my heels in and ignore his wise advice? Hard-headed daughters of the world: unite!

Clearly I had a little bit of an issue loading the camera and ended up with a couple of overlapping photos, but I don’t mind that. I’ve noticed it doesn’t stop at “1” like my 500cm does, and this is something I need to look into since I suspect it’s user error. Also, my favorite photo might be the one of my teen laying down in the grass to get the perspective she required. . . . . speaking of passing things on. . . .

Thanks, y’all, for looking! I’ve got another roll from this camera waiting for development. Onward, widely!