Reading Helen Macdonald on photographs

I have just finished reading the remarkable book "H is for Hawk" by Helen Macdonald.  

In the book she writes about the death of her father who was a photographer. I was so struck by her grappling with the question: How you learn what you are. It gave me real insight into why this project has been so important to me.

Excerpt from 'H is for Hawk':

'All those thousands upon thousands of photographs my father had taken. Think of them instead. Each one a record, a testament, a bulwark against forgetting, against nothingness, against death. Look this happened. A thing happened, and now it will never unhappen. Here it is, in the photograph...'

I am understanding how this passion of mine to both record and understand the story of our families through the letters they wrote, through their words and also through the photos that were taken, is the bulwark against forgetting and the witnessing that a thing happened and now will never unhappen.

Helen reading from H is for Hawk

Postscript: 

I went to a Jenny & Co book event where she hosted and chatted to Helen Macdonald.

I enjoyed both the brief chat with Helen, she showed me a photo of her goshawk, Mabel on her iPhone. She speaks as well as she writes, is natural and almost bemused and surprised by the huge success of her book.

Forget Beatrix Potter, this was the favourite children's book

"The Cow who Fell in the Canal (195o) is a charming story set in the countryside of Holland.  Phyllis Krasilovsky tells the story of Hendrika the cow, who although she loves her owner Mr. Hofstra, she longs to visit Amsterdam where Mr. Hofstra sells her milk at the market.  If Krasilovsky's text isn't humorous enough, Peter Spier's intricate illustrations lend further description."

Books have always been special to me and reading a joy in my life. It started very early too. 

My grandfather, Pa van der Veen, Mom's Dad, made me a wrought-iron bookshelf when I was a little girl. Dad hung it in my bedroom in Gillespie Street, Vanderbijlpark and I would play 'library, library' with my neighbour Ilse Tamsen. 

I had a wonderful collection of books, Beatrix Potter and all the Enid Blyton series like Famous Five and Secret Seven. Some of these books survived the years and Shawni has them.

The bookcase is still one of my treasures. It was used for Shawni and Barry's books and is now in it's next reincarnation as the bookshelf in my studio.

It is no surprise to me to read my letter to Mom about buying books for Shawni. "The Cow who fell in the Canal" about Hendrika the cow enthralled Shawni after her visit to Holland in the summer of 1987, she 'could relate to the windmills, flower fields etc, so when we got to the farm she could not contain her excitement about meeting Mr Hofstra, the owner of Hendrika!' 

Fred and I were just as enthralled with "The Cow who fell in the Canal". This fading photo in my album from the August 1987, of the Magere Brug across the Amstel River in Amsterdam is titled, 'Hendrika's Bridge'.

When we get to Wellington later in the year to visit Shawni and Criag I am going to dig out her book and reread it. It is a gem.

The Magere Bridge over the Amstel that Fred and I called 'Hendrika's Bridge'