Portraits of my Father

Easter Sunday, 1960, 8 St. Mary's Road, Cromer, Norfolk, England

There was a book published last year by Lodima Press on Brett Weston's 1977 portfolio titled "Portraits of my Father". This portfolio and book contained 10 photographs of Brett's father, Edward Weston, one of the icons of 20th Century photography (as is Brett).

It has been one year since my father passed and I have started thinking again of going through all the old negatives and prints that have been handed down to me. Originally I wanted to do a portfolio/book of images that my father had "taken", especially those from England, where he was stationed in the United States Air Force during the Korean War, and where I was born.

As I started going through all of this material I found photographs "of" my father. I love "period" imagery (and films). I was trying to tell my daughter the other night that "period" used to mean anything before the early to mid 20th Century. Today it means the 1960s or 1970s. Anyway, these images I found had a certain charm to them. Drugstore negatives and prints from a 120/220 film camera. Some dimple cut. All of Kodak film and paper (Kodak is about to disappear as we know it very soon). All have creases and cracks. There's even some that my father made on 4x5" film. Once I saw these images I decided to change my idea to encompass both the images of him and those by him.

These four images are the first that I have scanned towards this project, tentatively titled "Through my Father's Eyes: Photographs of and by Richard J. Coda Jr." I still have to research many of these for accurate dates and locations.

Location and Date Unknown

Location and Date Unknown

July 31, 1960, Cromer Beach, Norfolk, England
A father for 42 days