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| Roy and Dale Evans Rogers |
I have a memory from childhood being asked by adults what I wanted to be when I grew up. It was posed as a binary choice -- Cowboy or Fireman. Those categories seem somewhat strange these days, but I suppose they were the product of the popular culture of the day in the form of books and films, along with the content of early TV programming. I think I realized at the time that there was an element of intended humor in the question, but I'm pretty sure I always responded "Cowboy", as unlikely as the choice seemed even then.
Do present day children undergo such interrogation? If so, I imagine the choices might be somewhat different, since few children these days would know about Roy Rogers or Gene Autry. TV series featuring firefighters are fairly common, and I would think astronauts might be entered into the equation. And, what of girls? What kind of career choices, facetious or otherwise, would have been -- are -- proffered?
Well, I never became a fireman or a cowboy. My career trajectory was sporadic. What persisted over the years was an interest in photography, though never as a significant source of income. I had some opportunities for photographing cowboys when we lived in southern New Mexico, but seldom produced images of that subject.
I did focus on the subject of firefighting and have made a lot of images over the years, mostly of fire trucks which have been portrayed by many of my old film cameras. Sheer luck brought me the opportunity to make images of firefighters in action. In 1970 my pictures of the rescue of a firefighter on a San Francisco rooftop made the front page of the SF Examiner.
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| Pentax Spotmatic |
Earlier, about 1967, I happened on a big lumberyard fire in Brooklyn which I captured with my Nikon S.
Since those days my collection of old cameras has accounted for a lot of shots of fire engines in Albuquerque.
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| Kodak Ritina IIc |
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| Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim |
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| Kodak Flash Bantam |
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| Voigtlander Vito II |
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| Voigtlander Vito II |
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| YashicaMat |
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| Olympus Infinity Stylus |
I actually did get closer to being a fireman than a cowboy. Jobs were hard to find in the 1970s, which impelled me to apply for a firefighter job in a community north of Oakland. I easily passed the written test, but that was as far as I got with that prospect. The possibility that I might be required to drive one of those big trucks was terrifying
So, my hat is off in front of those fellows who did take up the challenge, and thanks for the opportunity to make pictures of that noble calling.
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Meanwhile:
- Jacobin
and...
'Cowboys for Trump' founder charged in Jan. 6 riot no longer supports Trump
- Santa Fe New Mexican
3 comments:
All I ever wanted to be was a disc jockey on the radio and to work in televisions. I did both. I recall as a young buy, sketching pictures of what I thought the inside of a television studio looked liked just from those few moments that we got to see behind the scenes stuff on TV. Years later, I got to see the inside of both CBS Television City and NBC Burbank, two facilities the networks no longer use. I'm rambling. Enjoyed your post.
"Boy" not buy
In your dramatic San Francisco Chronicle, note the article on "Reagan wants to Tighten Welfare." Gawd, they have been beating on this issue for much of a century. It's like a mania with them.
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