photo courtesy Leyla Lau Lamb
I shut my Facebook a few days back every time I use FB and I use it more as a street photographer and as a street poet , my posts would end up hurting some bigots sense and sensibility simply that he does not like the rituals culture or spiritual ideology I post of the diverse religions of India so having added me as a friend he turns vile ,,I block him but than I get hurt so I move out of Facebook.
I have deactivated Facebook many times I have lost count but I come back as I have some very beautiful friends ..some are friends from Flickr .
One of them was late Mr Jeff Lamb..how we met on Flickr I still dont remember but for me after Bandra where I live my next stop part of my fecund imagination became Ann Arbor thanks to Jeff through Jeff I met other friends of Jeff highly gifted prolific photographers and camera enthusiasts almost camera demi gods like Marc Akeman .
Now as a photographer I have been a late learner no formal training in photography but I shot what God told me to shoot and I came to photography to give up my deoendence on alcohol the mind doctor told my wife I needed another powerful intoxication it almost made me broke ..photography .
I shot film mostly Ilford Delta 100 ASA Velvia 50 Provia ..and Fuji color I did not much care for Kodak Triax ..or their color range .
There was no method to my madness in photography I shot 40 rolls color slides BW of a Shia Event Ashura perched on a gate with just one camera .
So what I am trying to put across is I was not the kind of photographer that Jeff had as companions I was point shoot DSLR addict my Mantra was Fuck Fstops break rules and fuck all pedantic pompous old Renaissance masters that was shoved both up my throat and my rectum by camera club slave masters .
I enjoyed Jeffs pictures the vastness the expanse and the light shadows and silhouettes his lingering love for life his surroundings his friends ..all encompassed my cosmic ever learning mind .
He would send me mail comment favorite my pictures but most of all he loved my 3 year old photo shooting granddaughter Marziya Shakir and he was touched by her love of Lucky the Labrador ..
I knew nothing about Jeffs life his wife or whether he had children ours was photographic platonic relationship the camera added fodder to our thoughts .
I am not much of a writer I write with my camera and my words are limited to poetry ..but some episodes in life make me voluble voracious and garrulous .
When I was shutting my FB I thought of shutting FB Messenger too but curiously went though the thread of old messages and found one of Jeff Lamb he wrote to me
""somehow i miss your face book posts on my fb home page, but i do check in, here or on the flickr. and am always glad to see your work and the place that you live. best to you
reminds me that photography is love. thnks
jl""
Last message to me on FB from Jeff
I sent this to Marc Akeman and to Leyla Lau Lamb it made them nostalgic and it touched Leyla I told her I wanted to write a few lines but did not have Jeffs pictures she was kind and sent quite a few which will bring joy to lovers of Jeffs personality and photography .
So dont ever assume that photography is only about picture taking or picture sharing it is our connection with life death and after life.. it is a medium invoking the spirit on the Ouija board it is about mysticism it is about unknown territories that our mind adventurously captures .
I wish Flickr had a way to add all pictures of Jeff sent by Leyla on this single page but than it would pose as a blog and the greatest insult to the soul of photography according to me is blogging..
I am everything a photographer an arsehole even a dickhead but I am not a blogger .
I died as a blogger I OD ed on my Blogs .
Goodnight
Jeff lives on Flickr
Jeff
JeffLeyla
