Our life is frittered away by detail… simplify, simplify.
Henry David Thoreau
Since the late 1990s I’ve been carrying a Leica M6 camera. It was the perfect tool for the photographic projects I was working on and together we made thousands and thousands of negatives. I described the camera as “beloved”.
This past weekend I sold it, a gesture toward simplifying life.
The camera is haunted by memories. Those memories trigger a nostalgic reaction that makes decisions to dispose of things difficult. For the past couple of years it sat in it’s Domke satchel waiting for another project to come to life even though I knew that wasn’t going to happen.
I almost kept it. Going through contact sheets and finished prints I was swept up into those moments in silver that I relived in my head. How could I abandon them?
Standing in the darkroom I could see the past; the Leica, the image I made in the early 1970s in my apartment, the Ben Hur book I bought at the Warner Theater in the early 1960s. Details, evidence of my existence are everywhere. They have weight and I feel it.
The Leica couldn’t sit quietly in the cupboard. I thought about it. Felt bad about it. Made plans to use it. It consumed energy. It had to go.
And it has.
When Vespa scooters entered by life the world I was experiencing changed as did the photographic needs that arose. The Leica fell into disuse as digital photography showed its value. And it wasn’t long before Scooter in the Sticks was born, a different project with different needs, that relegated the Leica into memory.
When I sealed the deal to sell it I only felt relief. It was one less thing I whispering in my head.
For me, Thoreau was right, life does get frittered away by the little details. I’m making an effort to simplify life.
Books are next.