About Lex Harris
I took my first photographs as a boy in the early 1960s, encouraged by my mother, with a battered Ziess Ikon Box Tengor she'd brought with her from her native Holland. I recall that with my mother momentarily out of sight, I yielded to curiosity and opened the camera to examine the images I had just taken. It was an inauspicious beginning. No photos survived from my adventures with the Box Tengor, but the memory of that distant encounter still remains.
My next camera, and the first I could truly call my own, was a Kodak Instamatic 25 given to me as a gift by my parents in the mid 60s. The simple and rugged Instamatic became my companion through my early teens in the late 1960s. Together we discovered Kodachrome, then still available in 126 and a host of other sizes, and recorded images that remain as vibrant today as the day they were taken over 40 years ago.
Looking back, those early encounters were the humble beginnings of a life-long interest in photography, which at times became a passion, and for a few years even an occupation. In the early 70s my cheerful and trusty Instamatic 25 was replaced with a solid and dependable Canon FTb, and the little viewfinder faded quietly into the corridors of history. The FTb led to a procession of other Canon FD series 35mm SLRs - an EF during a stint as a studio photographer, an AE1-P, an A-1, an F-1 - and later a progression into Mamiya and Rolleiflex medium format systems. I remain an avid film user, and so long as film remains available I expect I will continue to use it alongside newer camera technology. Those interested in technical details can find a brief list of my current equipment here.
Like many, I've often carried a camera as a means of keeping a visual diary on the various journeys and adventures we call life. But it was always more than just snapshots. Often the journey may have been the principal goal and the camera just an accessory, but when I look back at the images of journeys made long ago I'm glad I chose to venture out with more than just a pocket camera.
I hope you enjoy my collection of postcards from beyond. Please feel free to drop me a line and let me know your thoughts.