In addition to the photographs of Bert, and the captions he writes, the images of Bert’s folded pajamas, nightcap, space heater atop a biscuit tin, and the simple apparatus he engineered to hold a broken daffodil up straight in a shallow teacup, all speak to me of him. Bert’s captions create a new context for my photographs, while some correspond to the thinking that shaped the image, others interpret the image in a different way, thereby adding a critical second perspective to this work. Each speaking from our own perspective, we began the dialog that eventually became this book. To better understand his feelings about being photographed and his reactions to my photographs, I asked Bert to caption small prints I kept in a pocket-sized notebook. I wondered too how my perceptions of Bert differed from the way he saw himself. These comments led me to think more about the ways our ideas regarding photography differed. I look, too, for domestic patterns and practiced daily routines that make us feel at home or that confirm, or conform to, our ideas of what home should be.Įarly in this project Bert shared some intriguing thoughts and comments with me concerning my photographs of him. I often seek in my photographs the banal moments of the day-the experiences not usually considered significant enough to warrant a snapshot. As my photographic studies have evolved I have increasingly focused on ideas and depictions of home. As we became better acquainted I noticed, too, the way he organized his things and his time, and I found his approaches thoughtful. Not long after our first meeting I asked Bert if he would work with me on a photographic project and soon I began to learn more about aspects of his life, including his experience living through WWII in Britain, his work as a general engineer, and his relationship to the flora and fauna outside his building. Because we had no car, we walked almost daily between our flat and the city center, regularly passing the building where Bert lived.Īt first I felt shy about introducing myself to Bert, but eventually I did walk over to meet him and he greeted me warmly. We had packed up our lives in New Mexico and come to Wales so that I could go to graduate school to study photography. Bert was renting a small flat - in what I imagine was once an elegant building, and my husband Will Reichard and I lived in a basement flat nearby. I met Albert Hastings in 2001 when we lived in the same neighborhood in southern Wales.
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