heather champ - 2011 April

Archive for April 2011

Forty-eight

There are the normal birthday milestones that we will all (hopefully) hurdle: a first birthday, sweet 16, turning 21, the big three-o, etc. And then there are the more personal ones that develop from our own journey.

I remember the year I realized that I’d been alive longer without my mother in my life than with her. She had passed away at the age of forty-eight after a short, brutal battle with cancer. There were many tears that year.

When I was younger, forty-eight seemed a lifetime away. Forty-eight is old! At forty-eight you might as well have one foot on that ice flow.* It should come as no surprise that I’m backtracking on that a wee bit now. And it has nothing to do with the fact that there’s a significant lack of ice flowing past San Francisco.

I’ve spent much of the last year coming to terms with the fact that I was approaching another significant milestone. Today, I am now the same age that my mother was when she died. I can’t even begin to express how angry and bereft I am at the thought that this was all the time that she had. Forty-eight is nothing.

My friends have been wonderful as I talked about this over the last year, working through my fear and anxiety. Thank you for listening.

* “Did Eskimos put their elderly on ice floes to die?” Short answer: Not really. Also, as a Canadian, I’m uncomfortable with the use of Eskimo. Shouldn’t it be “Inuit”?

29 April 2011 Words

Pinhole and Leslie

My love of pinhole photography began with a gift from a friend in 2003. Leslie had spent months looking for a Snapdragon pinhole camera, Polaroid back and a bunch of expired film that I could burn through. She wanted to give me my birthday present just a little bit early that year and included a print out of the Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day web site. Leslie passed away very suddenly a few years ago and we all lost something beautiful. She was an incredibly talented and funny woman with a brain unlike any other.

While every day can be a pinhole day, there’s something special about the last Sunday in April. As I drag my gear around looking for inspiration, I know that I’m part of something just a little bit bigger and I know that Leslie is with me.

Here are my contributions to the last nine Worldwide Pinhole Photography Days:

2003