[Leica] Loss....

[bjq1 at mac.com (Barney Quinn)]

Adam,

I am sorry for your loss. Thank you for posting your thoughts and  
feelings and thank you for the reminder. This is a lesson I keep  
trying to learn but somehow never do. The time to tell the people  
whom you love that you love them is today, and the time to make a  
portrait of them is this instant. I remember something from years ago  
when I was a young man. My 84 year old grandfather came over for  
dinner. We sat around the dining room table for hours listening to  
him tell stories. I was a broadcast engineer at the time. I kept  
telling myself that I should really go upstairs and get my tape  
recorded. I never did because I was just too far into enjoying his  
stories. A few days later he was dead. He always said that all he  
wanted in life was a great grand child. My cousin Chuck and his wife  
had their first child later that week. My Grandpa had the great grand  
child whom he wanted. He was life was complete, at least in his eyes,  
and very soon after he died of a massive heart attack. I still regret  
not having those stories on tape. I am convinced that the evening of  
stories he graced us was his way of saying good bye. I think he knew.  
He'd lived as long as he cared to live. Long years later I still wish  
I had a recording.

I know exactly what you mean. Perhaps we should all start a group  
project. Perhaps we should all start making and posting pictures of  
those we love. Perhaps it would even make a good blurb book. If each  
of us doesn't have an I love you Book we should at least have an I  
love you gallery.

Barney

On Oct 5, 2008, at 11:02 PM, Adam Bridge wrote:

> I lost a dear friend today. His name was Jack Crow4ell. (The 4 is  
> silent.)
>
> He had a PhD in Physics from Johns Hopkins, his undergraduate work at
> Georgia Tech. He went to conservatory at Peabody. He sustained his
> passion for choral music, that informed his soul about the world, the
> world about his soul. H did with wonderfully complicated work in the
> bowels of operating systems. He knew DEC's RT-11 inside and out,
> almost as well as the folks at Digital who actually wrote the code. He
> was a gentleman. He was creative. He had a love for the creative, for
> language, for the world. He grew up in Mobile, Alabama and always was
> a creature of the South - the very best parts of the South.
>
> I didn't ever make his portrait. I was always so busy enjoying his
> company, the joy of his existence, the belief that he would be here
> forever, that I never picked up my camera and snapped an image.
>
> Do not do this.
>
> I so deeply regret that all the time we were making Halloween faces on
> a floor-full of huge orange Halloween balloons that I never snapped
> his photo. Never. He'd just be here FOREVER. I have the MEMORIES but I
> cannot share those. I cannot show you the dragon pumpkin he carved
> that enraptured my children so when they think of "Uncle Jack" that
> amazing pumpkin is always there in the first few sentences.
>
> Last year he had cancer and last weekend, while I was in Arizona, he
> got bronchitis. My other partner from a previous life, Bob, took him
> his meds (Jack lived alone) but when he didn't make his doctor's
> appointment the next day, and didn't answer the phone, they sent the
> police who found him.
>
> I feel bereft. How could I have left such a wonderful human being
> without an image that I made, that shares the bond between
> photographer and subject/friend?
>
> I do not know. But the emptiness inside me knows I should pass along
> this deeply hurtful lesson. Please, record those around you. Let your
> love and passion inform you. Do the portraits. Save them. Cherish
> them.
>
> Go forth and make good work that's personal and passionate of those
> you know and love.
>
> I have learned why and the consequences of not doing so.
>
> Adam
>
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