A photograph you like

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still" 

Dorothea Lange, American documentary photographer

I have warm memories of public squares, urban parks and other areas of recreation where people gathered to listen to a band of musicians, children played tag, serious men read newspapers, young people met and flirted, dogs ran after running kids holding colorful ballons, ...  

"Magician"

As a child, I looked with admiration at the smiling man who worked miracles using a "magical" device that called the attention of the people around; I was intrigued to know how this apparently ordinary man was able to take images of kids, couples in love, tourists, families. This "magician" used a big camera on a tripod and, after a short ceremony to arrange people in the "adequate" position, he pressed a mysterious button while a big flash emitted light on the subjects, causing surprise in the spectators. Then, he introduced his hand into the camera cloth hood, moved his hand within the camera and extracted the precious material: a black-and-white image on paper. 

Technological advance has led those photographers to almost extinction... photographic cameras have become smaller, cheaper and within the reach of everyone... But the transition to modern digital cameras was not easy at all...   

Non-professional, economic old cameras needed an external flash that was inserted into the camera: this "magic cube" had four bulbs that permitted to have light for four photographs; thus, if you were in an important ceremony, you needed 9 magic flashes to have light for 36 photographs... and you also needed to buy a roll film for 36 photographs and insert it in the camera. Later, the roll films had to be taken to places where the photographs would be developed.  

SRL camera (TTL=Through The Lens)

In time, Single-Reflex Lens (SRL) cameras became cheaper... this led me to reading on photography and, as young adult, I learned, in a workshop, how to take and develop photographs in a laboratory. In short, you first removed the roll film from the camera in a dark room and treated it with chemicals; then, you let a beam of light pass through each frame of the photographic film for a few seconds: the light would leave an "invisible" image on a sensitive photographic paper; then, you placed this paper into a developer fluid until an image--the photograph--were visible to your eyes; next, you removed the photograph from the fluid and immersed it into another fluid to fix the image on paper; finally, you removed the photograph, washed it  and allowed it to dry... the magic was there: a beautiful photograph of your own.

My curious friend...

Many years ago, I was trying to capture a still life early in the morning, when a wandering dog came to me, with a curious look, trying to understand the magic of the camera I held in my hands...I took some pictures while it stared at me... waiting for the magic to come, but magic did not come; I felt its disappointment when it turned and went away.  I never saw it again; however, it is present in my album of photos where the magic of its look prevails...

Nowadays, digital cameras allow to have hundreds of photographs, have automatic built-in flash , no paper nor roll film is required; yet, some people say they are in danger of disappearing with the appearance of smartphones and other devices of common use. 

While technology advances, I can imagine the wandering dog saying "it's my image in your mind that matters... the rest is just technology..."   

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