Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2008/10/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Thank you, Barney, for your support and your excellent idea. An "I Love You Gallery" will be a part of my immediate future. And to all of those from the LUG who wrote to me privately: thank you for your support and kind words. I didn't expect such an outpouring and find it only solidifies what a special place this is. Adam On Mon, Oct 6, 2008 at 5:10 AM, Barney Quinn <bjq1@mac.com> wrote: > > 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 >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Leica Users Group. >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >