Readers may have noticed a lack of activity on Macfilos over the past two months. In fact, had it not been for our wonderful band of contributors, articles would have dwindled to nothing. As it is, however, we’ve been living from finger to blog for all these weeks. There is a good reason.
Back in March, I decided to embark on a major episode of home renovation, involving ripping out the entire ground floor of the house and installing a new rear garden room with and new kitchen. It’s the first major update since moving in 25 years ago. In addition, I have been managing a project at another location which I had foolishly agreed to handle before making the decision on the home job.
All this has resulted in our being under siege by an army of workmen, with all the disruption, dust, rubbish and noise that that entails. I know many readers will have had similar experiences. It is never easy. While I didn’t have to do any of the physical work, the constant sourcing of material (these screws for the light switches are too short, can you order some longer ones?), decision making, visiting the building suppliers and ordering from the internet has sorely tested my patience. At one stage I genuinely wished I had never started.
Oskar feeds again
On Thursday last week, our team of crafters handed back the keys and all is now again peace and quiet art Macfilos Towers. The ducks are back in their row. Apart from some still-to-be-ordered items of furniture, the constant deliveries have ceased. The overflowing skip has been removed from the drive, allowing my long-suffering motor car, Oskar the Tesla, to snuggle up once more to his umbilical cord.
So I am dusting off the cameras, beginning to make plans for modest travel (mostly within England for the time being) and trying to get back to my daily exercise routine — something that has suffered from the eight weeks of turmoil.
Taking advantage of my first free weekend in a month, I spent Sunday morning at the revived London Photographica camera fair which, until the pandemic, had been a regular annual date in my diary. It was a noticeably smaller and quieter affair than pre-Covid, but this is perhaps to be expected. However, there was an encouraging contingent of overseas buyers who had decided to see if there could be exceptional bargains following the years of Photographica’s absence. For me, the occasion was a good opportunity to meet old friends, including Len Lyons who for decades ran the popular and respected Leica dealership, R.G.Lewis in Southampton Row.
With luck, along the way, I will now find something new to write about.
Heartfelt thanks to all those contributors who, unasked, have continued to send in wonderful articles for processing. We couldn’t have done without you.
A cup of coffee works wonders in supporting Macfilos
Did you know that Macfilos is run by a dedicated team of volunteers? We rely on donations to help pay our running costs. And even the cost of a cup of coffee will do wonders for our energy levels.
As an architect I’d love to see before and after!!
Welcome back, Mike. I feared the silence masked some unmentionable malady or other health issue. It hadn’t occurred to me that you were deeply into DIY. Any TV camera present during the work?
Well, I wasn’t exactly Doing It Myself. Just directing operations. I do have progress pictures but I wouldn’t impose that level of detail on long-suffering readers.
I was also at Photographica yesterday. Although the numbers were down on pre-pandemic levels, I felt that made for a better visitor experience – less crowding and crushing. Perhaps not so good for the vendors, however. And I sold more than I bought this year, so I wasn’t lining anyone’s pockets either …
Alan
Now I hadn’t thought of taking things to sell. But I suppose a lot of they trading goes on. I agree that the show was easier to navigate because of the winder aisles and stand spacing.
Mike, as you know, I might have travelled over for Photographica if I were not so busy on other fronts, including organising the LHSA Conference for Dublin in October and going to Wetzlar for the big auction in a couple of weeks from now. I have identified Peter Loy and Jem Kime in your photos and I’m sure that a lot of my PCCGB friends were there. I also know that my friend Lars Netopil was over from Wetzlar with a stand to advertise his October auction and also to look out for stock. One good sign, despite the ‘depleted’ numbers, seems to be the number of young people looking for film cameras in addition to the usual grey haired people like myself. PCCGB, which organises Photographica, is a great organisation and I have been participating a lot in their Sunday morning Zooms over the past year or so. It truly is an educational experience to be on a Zoom with such experts on old cameras and sometimes it is humbling, such as when one of the members produced a Leica which he had bought in 1947! A recent wonderful Zoom talk by Paul Godfrey on the use of Leica 250s for British Seaside Photography was one which would have interested a lot of readers here.
Finally, that contraption on the Flints stand is to die for. It looks like an early macro-photography set up.
William