John Meadows Journeys As the saying goes, ‘A journey starts with a single step’. So it has been for me with photography, that first step started at a very young age playing around with my mums Box Brownie and a Kodak Anastigmat folding bellows camera. There was a mysticism about these contraptions that captured ‘Moments in Time’ ( a title I recently coined for presenting images for my portfolio in a short video).
Teenage years through to late 20’s the camera’s captured my many pre ‘Adventure Tourism’ activities, including tramping/mountain climbing, sailing and even strapping a ‘Super 8’ cine camera to my hang glider and then sailing through the Western Pacific for 6 months. All the time capturing ‘Moments in Time’. Where upon I invested a deal of precious funds to buy a Minolta XG2 with multiple lenses, filters and power winder.
There was no sudden profound revelation that piqued my interest, just this growing fascination, until one Birthday or was it Christmas, my parents gave me the originalKodak Instamatic which had a small pocket ‘Pop-up’ flash holder that you inserted a single bulb that literally melted when fired.
I needed to recoup these outlays and managed to secure a Photographers role at a Studio in the Hutt Valley New Zealand, part time. Still, I was now doing the work in the ‘Dark Room’ and shoots of weddings, conferences, still life and the occasional animal assignments, at last! Alas the studio closed down, so back topersonal stuff. That said, they recorded adventures in Sri Lanka and India and the Pacific Islands.
Pyrotechnics! From then on a camera of some sort was always close by. So much so that all I wanted to do after leaving school at 15 yrs was to become a Photographer. However, not being sufficiently qualified inscience and maths (for mixing chemicals and calculations) the position I sought at the then National Film Unit proved beyond my reach.
