In the days of old, in the days of gold
How oft’times I repine for the days of old
When we dug up the gold, in the days of ’49.
(Bob Dylan, from “Days of 49″)
I’m not really so disgusted that I repine my months of study of art history in Europe in the late 60′s.
We (photographers) shot film in those days and I do have my collection of several thousand images well archived. At the time, I never thought for a moment that four decades later my images would be eligible for categorization as retro or vintage or historical or old time or collectible or antique or anything else associated with photographs from a long time ago.
I would have shot so much more. I would have had such motivation to see things with an even more scrutinizing eye.
I understand now why people read history books. [I was never much of a history buff in school]
You can learn from what others before you have done. Uh… hello! Parents? Are your children listening to you and learning about not making the mistakes you made?
There is something to learn from history if you are in a learning mood.
When shooting “stock” images now, it will be much more aggressively since I’ll be reminding myself about the days of old in the days of gold.
Michelangelo’s “David” photo by Marc Blake, 1969 – taken in the Gallery of the Academy, Florence, Italy, Nikon F, Tri-X Pan, processing “normal” in Kodak D-76, digitized in 2009 with a Nikon Coolscan 9000.
Did you know that Michelangelo signed his statue of David near the base in the back of the sculpture with a self-portrait of his profile?