On a hot summer day in late July, Claire brought home a stack of film she had processed. When I viewed the scans, I found a special treat. The images were from a hike this past winter in Mohican State Park. These frames were taken with our Mamiya 645J, and since Prada’s passing in June, will be the last frames of film I will take of her. Her death has made me think of many things. When viewing these photographs, I realize that when she started life twelve years ago, I took many photos on film. In 1999, Prada’s life was just starting, and celloid film and wet process photography was in it’s last vestiges as the preferred – or at least the most popular format for image-making.
Despite any personal constitution, sense of ascetics, principle, or reverence, convenience will get this best of all, and I used film less and less as Prada got older. As my preferred model for many years, she was likely the first frame I took on countless cameras I had over the last decade, each more advanced, more mega-pixeled, and sharper than the one before. In many ways, My relationship with my dog paralleled my relationship with photography; both I were dedicated to wholeheartedly as I matured into adulthood. In the end, it was a camera as old as me that captured her last frames on film as we all rambled on togehter through a snowy day on Ohio.
