I walk down the main drag of the town I grew up in with my two kids. I open the door to the only remaining photography store in the area. There at the counter is the guy I knew from another store...he sold me film when I lived here and I had a job close by...aged 16-19. The guy was friendly to this stranger's questions, just like he always was kind in the past:
Hey....I know you. You used to work at Berns Camera, correct?
Wow...how old are you? I always thought you were so much older than me.
Oh...so you worked there when you were like 20?
Yeah, I started there when I was 19. I moved over here a year before they closed.
Wow, great to see you again.
So it is my birthday, I'm in my home town. I'm showing my kids the town that made such an impression on me when I was growing up. I show them every year, take them to the same places, walk them down the same streets. I try but I can never really explain the role this town plays in my life and my photography. My first influential teacher was there and the town was my first real subject matter. For me, it seems like photography as I know it was invented in Schenectady, N.Y.m
Even now, trying to write it at the keyboard, I can't come up with the right words.