Quote

I’ve been a big fan of Elliott Erwitt’s work for years and I recently bought a print of his ‘Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade‘ in New York from 1988 (below) in the Magnum Square Print sale. When I showed it to a friend he said it reminded him of this quote:

“The best camera is the one that’s with you.” – Chase Jarvis

I’d never heard it before but I thought it was very apt for this image. The immediacy, the playfulness. Sometimes we wait to have the latest gadget, for the ‘right’ moment, and time just passes us by. It’s a lesson to live in the present and, like the Nike slogan, ‘Just do it.‘

We met up with this same friend and his family for lunch in May and he brought with him a new Leica Sofort instant camera which he was trying out. It’s like the old Polaroid camera which develops a print shortly after taking the picture. He took a few quick photos and then kindly gifted us the prints. They are beautiful and serve as a great memory of the how special that day was.