Through My Father’s Eyes

Growing up on a small dairy farm in southeast Wisconsin, my father, Richard “Dick” Hay, started taking photographs in the 1930’s. When he died in 2017 at age 97, he left behind over 10,000 Kodachrome slides mostly stored in carousels. Like many family photographers, he largely documented family events — vacations, birthdays, picnics, graduations, trips, celebrations, etc. We’d gather the family together to put up a portable screen in our living room and “watch slides” in the evening — projecting them in glorious Kodachrome color with our Kodak carousel projector.

My father helped me get started taking pictures with a gift of a Brownie Hawkeye box camera when I was young. He upped the game considerably by entrusting me with his prized Kodak 35mm camera when I did a backpacking trip to Philmont Scout Ranch in 1966. Four hundred Scouts took a train to New Mexico from Baltimore and It was the first time that I had been west of the Mississippi. The western scenery and our hiking in the Sangre de Cristo mountains were wondrous to me and I treasure still having those slides today.

Fast forward to a few years ago and I inherited my dad’s Nikon gear from the 70’s. After some cleaning, I’m using it to shoot 35mm film again. Nikon didn’t really distinguish between “pro” and “consumer” lenses back then and the lenses are robustly built with good optical performance.

Viewing the world today through the same glass that my dad used suggested the name for this project. I’m slowly working my way though the 10,000 slides and selecting those that I think are interesting photographically. This is work in progress and I will periodically be adding new images to this project portfolio.