A Dying Industry

Posted on January 10, 2003 in Encounters

Went by a photo place to get my passport photos so I can go down to the Federal Building in Los Angeles and get myself suited up for next week’s trip, yet another example of this administration’s paranoia.

The owner was sad because he’d seen his entire commercial business — from engineers, realtors, attornies, etc. — disappear due to the rise of the digital camera. The shop was empty and he was hawking some of his platinum prints from the front counter. He ambled back and forth as he talked about his woes, running a blow dryer over our polaroid faces so they’d come out faster and keeping his hands in the pockets of his blue Guatemalan jacket while he recited the litany of the losses he’d experienced over the past three years.

As the owner of a classic film camera (Nikon 8008), I could sympathize somewhat with him. THe world was changing, all too abruptly for him, and, as usual, not giving those like him a safety net.

I don’t know what else to say. It’s death on the cheap, a funeral parlor sans the satin curtains and velvet lined chairs.