Hasselblad

One day, my husband brought home for me a Hasselblad camera. It is the camera of any photographer’s dreams. I was shocked, I was nervous, and I thought I was not ready for such a professional camera. I was intimidated, I was afraid of this new equipment. First, I was even unable to open the camera to put in the new film, 120 film. I took my time, studied and figured out how to work with it. Hasselblad is a simple camera; it is also called the Swedish Brownie. The negatives are bigger, 2 ¼ by 2 ¼ and used by fashion or advertising photographers. Now, it is my favorite camera.







 For practice, I took my new camera and a tripod and went out in winter on Saturdays to take pictures of the garbage in New York City. Taking pictures in early winter is great because, first, I didn’t have to get up so early, second the sun is soft. It was perfect lighting for my garbage. I went out for three or four months to catch the perfect images. After a few weeks I figured out that the high buildings have more and better garbage than the townhouses. The supers of the buildings were and still are very terribly meticulous in putting all the paper and bottles together. Newspapers were piled up in packages and held together with a string and a bow, which looked like presents to my eyes. Plastic bottles were collected in light blue bags; even the black bags gave a beautiful texture, contrast of light and dark.

The garbage itself had become the images, the most surreal of subjects, making it possible to see a new beauty in what was used and what was on the way to disappearing. I, as a photographer, not only set myself to the task of recording a disappearing and wasting world, but was so employed by still finding beauty. Collectors want to renew the old things with new ones, but the aspect of the photographic enterprise can certainly catch and hold the daily life in pictures. Nobody discovered ugliness through photographs. But many, through the images, have discovered beauty. I did go out, like everybody else, put my nose up against the garbage, and said “Isn’t that ugly”. But, I found beauty in the ugly thing. The camera’s role has been successful in beautifying the world through photographs. Photographs create the beautiful.