Through my grandfather’s lens

I recently began working on a side project I’ve been impatiently waiting to begin for about 2 years now. It’s not about my own work — it’s creating an archive of my grandfather’s 1000+ slides, and then figuring out how to share them with family members.

I have to credit my grandfather, Harvey S. Plourde (I called him Pepere), for introducing me to photography. He gave me my first camera around age 8 — a Kodak Pocket Instamatic. I was instantly hooked. I also spent many hours browsing with him through his enormous National Geographic collection and his own snapshots, which documented both our family and his time as a pilot.

When he died I was 16. I had not been able to take a photography class in school because I didn’t own an SLR camera, but was able to after I inherited his Cannon AE-1. Again, I was hooked. Having been a serious hobby photographer himself, I’m sure he would have been excited. I also acquired his notes on our family tree, and began my own project of adding to it and documenting what he wasn’t able to. I have since become fascinated with my family’s history and genealogy, and for years have been waiting for the free time to finally start scanning all of his slides, to add to the archive.

The best part — other than sending random goofy snapshots to family members — is that I now have the visual language to really look at his photos and see my family members how he saw them, through his own mixture of humor and pride, which I very clearly recognize. I’m loving every second of it.

Photos © Harvey S. Plourde, 1977