RE: [Leica] An Irish wake in a new land

["B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>]

> From: John Collier <jbcollier@powersurfr.com>
>
> An Irish wake in a new land
>
> http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=176307
>
> Though I have been using my cameras a great deal this past year, I have
been
> avoiding developing my last B&W exposures from early April. Finally on
> Christmas day I got up the courage to process, scan and print the film.
> Images that had not yet faded from my mind greeted me as the printer
snorted
> and snuffled its way through the paper.
>
> My father had past away while I was on my way home so I was not there to
> wish him god speed; only a few hours too late. My family and I stayed with
> him that night in the hospital and my mother slept one last night with
him.
> In the morning he was still warm from my mother's closeness. The women of
> the family stripped and washed the body and we dressed him in fresh
clothes
> before the morticians came to take him away.
>
> I was not sure what the reaction to the prints would be. Tears, yes, but
not
> despair. I am sure that none of the prints will be displayed but I am also
> sure they will be much thumbed through in the decades to come.
>
> Cameras are strange devices, what you see is certainly not what you get.
>
> John Collier

While intensely personal, John, these photos should be displayed at some
point - they are a wonderful example of what documentary photography is - or
should be - all about.

Just amazing.

B. D.

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