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VOA慢速英语2012 AMERICAN MOSAIC - A Snapshot of Picture Taking in the 1950s; The Music of Photography

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AMERICAN MOSAIC1 - A Snapshot of Picture Taking in the 1950s; The Music of Photography

JUNE SIMMS: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.

(MUSIC)

I’m June Simms. This week on our show, we talk about photography.

Long before cell phone cameras there was the Brownie Hawkeye. We tell you all about it. And then we listen to some songs that, one way or another, all have something to do with cameras.

Brownie Hawkeye Camera

JUNE SIMMS: Have you wondered, as you take a picture with your camera phone and e-mail it to a friend, what “point and shoot” photography was like years ago? VOA’s Steve Ember started taking pictures when his parents gave him a very special birthday present. He takes us on a trip back in time…for a “snapshot” of picture-taking in the nineteen-fifties.

(SOUND)

STEVE EMBER: It was called a Brownie Hawkeye. It was manufactured by Kodak, from nineteen forty-nine to nineteen sixty-one, and millions came to photography looking down into its viewfinder and taking pictures of Mom and Dad, the family cat, the new car, birthday parties, senior proms, vacations -- everything we wanted to remember, and preserve. They all became – as the Hawkeye’s manufacturer would later say in its advertising3 – “Kodak Moments.”

The Brownie Hawkeye – we called it a box camera, long before “point and shoot” entered the language. It was very “fifties” in appearance…and very, very popular. It was made of a heavy black plastic called Bakelite, with bright metal trim surrounding the lens and viewfinder. It was simple in design, sturdily4 built, and remarkably5 reliable. Kodak made them for about a decade, from nineteen forty-nine to nineteen sixty-one, and you can still find working examples, some fifty to sixty years later.

While the term “point-and-shoot” had not yet been invented, the Brownie Hawkeye was what I guess we’d now call a “point and shoot” camera. And that really did describe its operation. You’d point it…gently press the shutter6 release…and the picture was taken. If you were shooting inside, or after dark, you’d pop a big number twenty-five flashbulb into the flash attachment7 with the large shiny reflector that you’d plug into the left side of the camera. And you’d be very careful not to burn your fingers when you changed flashbulbs for the next shot.

So, there it was. No zoom8, no auto-focus. No screen on the back to tell you you’d gotten it right. Just point…and shoot.

SFX: Camera shutter

Oh yes, you did have to remember to do one other thing – wind the film to the next frame.

And how did you “share” your images back then?

RANDY SMITH: “I’m fifty-five years old, and I still remember going to the drugstore with my parents…and you’d get this little yellow book and you’d open up your photos and we’d just all sit around and look at the twelve shots that we got and we waited a week to get. And I still have boxes and boxes of those old little photo booklets [from] when I was a kid, and the memories are amazing.”

That’s Randy Smith of Hawkeyemods.com. He has been re-conditioning and modifying fifty and sixty year old Brownie Hawkeye cameras, for a quite wide age range of buyers, including people who came to photography in the digital era…and those of us who never completely abandoned film. Even those, like myself, who might wish to make a sentimental9 journey back to their true photographic “roots” and work with a different photographic style.

RANDY SMITH:”Hawkeye Brownies just had the old glass lens without any modern day coatings on them, and you’d just get a very nice contrasty old-fashioned look to your image.”

Well, I was sold. I just ordered one of Randy Smith’s modified Brownie Hawkeyes – with a tripod socket10 on the bottom – so I could really go back to basics and see about doing some serious photography with nineteen-fifties “point-and-shoot” technology. Might be fun.

RANDY SMITH: “Film will last forever, if you take care of the film and catalog it and put it away, and fifty years from now, somebody’ll find your negatives and print them out, and it will just be a treasure that they feel they’ve just found.”

And who knows, maybe I’ll just get something for the ages on film with my “new” nineteen-fifties Brownie Hawkeye. We’ll post some of my results right here on our web site.

Photographic Music

JUNE SIMMS: Songwriters often use cameras and photographs as a theme. The songs are often about memory, past glory or longing11. Faith Lapidus and I play some of these songs and explore the language used in them.

(MUSIC)

FAITH LAPIDUS: That is “Centerfold” by the J. Geils Band. The song came out in nineteen eighty-one on the group’s album “Freeze Frame.”

“Centerfold” tells about a man who remembers his high school love as perfect. He says “she was pure like snowflakes.”

Years later, he sees her picture in a magazine centerfold. It is the kind of magazine that contains pictures of women wearing few or no clothes. The centerfold is a photograph that covers three pages and unfolds from the magazine. It is a big picture and the person in it is the star of the magazine.

JUNE SIMMS: The J. Geils Band sings my blood runs cold / my memories have just been sold / my angel is the centerfold. 

When someone says their “blood runs cold” it means they are shocked or scared. The man in the song is shocked.

(MUSIC)

FAITH LAPIDUS: The J. Geils Band song “Freeze Frame” is filled with puns and other word play linked to photography. It talks about a snap2 shot image, proof sheet love and lots of uses of the word flash.

(MUSIC)

The idea in “Freeze Frame” is that a photographer has fallen in love with an image captured on film. The song goes zoom lens feelings just won’t disappear / her close-up dark room sweet-talk in my ear / her hot-spot love for me is so strong, this freeze frame moment can’t be wrong.

(MUSIC)

JUNE SIMMS: “Freeze Frame” like “Centerfold” is a lively and humorous song. But photos can also be a dark theme in songs.

The Cure’s “Pictures of You” is an example. The song is about memory, loss and grief12.

The first few lines go I've been looking so long at these pictures of you / That I almost believe that they're real / I've been living so long with my pictures of you / That I almost believe that the pictures are all I can feel.

(MUSIC)

FAITH LAPIDUS: Photo booths are found in shopping malls, beach boardwalks, amusement parks and other places. The small four-sided structure holds a camera and printer behind glass. There is a small area inside the booth usually with a place to sit. For a small amount of money people can have several pictures taken of themselves.

Deathcab for Cutie sings about a photo booth and the evidence it provides that love once existed.

(MUSIC)

JUNE SIMMS: In nineteen seventy-eight, the band Blondie came out with “Picture This.” People say “picture this” to mean “imagine this.” Blondie lead singer Deborah Harry13 describes a photo as “a small remembrance of something more solid.”

(MUSIC)

FAITH LAPIDUS: Kodachrome was a very successful kind of color film made by the company Kodak. It was first produced in the nineteen-thirties.

Musician Paul Simon wrote a song called “Kodachrome.” He once said that the song is really about going home, back to one’s childhood.

(MUSIC)

JUNE SIMMS: I’m June Simms. This program was written by Steve Ember and Caty Weaver14 who also was our producer.

Join us again next week for music and more on AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 mosaic CEExS     
n./adj.镶嵌细工的,镶嵌工艺品的,嵌花式的
参考例句:
  • The sky this morning is a mosaic of blue and white.今天早上的天空是幅蓝白相间的画面。
  • The image mosaic is a troublesome work.图象镶嵌是个麻烦的工作。
2 snap tFCzw     
n.啪地移动,突然断掉;v.猛咬,咬断,谩骂,砰然关上
参考例句:
  • He broke off the twig with a snap.他啪地一声把那根树枝折断了。
  • These earrings snap on with special fasteners.这副耳环是用特制的按扣扣上去的。
3 advertising 1zjzi3     
n.广告业;广告活动 a.广告的;广告业务的
参考例句:
  • Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
  • The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。
4 sturdily 42bbc4a307f756441e83847f653f0b93     
坚强地,刚强地,坚毅地
参考例句:
  • The younger generation grows up sturdily. 年轻一代茁壮成长。
  • Thousands of Young Pioneers under the good care of the Party are growing up sturdily. 成千上万的少先队员在党的关怀下茁壮成长。
5 remarkably EkPzTW     
ad.不同寻常地,相当地
参考例句:
  • I thought she was remarkably restrained in the circumstances. 我认为她在那种情况下非常克制。
  • He made a remarkably swift recovery. 他康复得相当快。
6 shutter qEpy6     
n.百叶窗;(照相机)快门;关闭装置
参考例句:
  • The camera has a shutter speed of one-sixtieth of a second.这架照像机的快门速度达六十分之一秒。
  • The shutter rattled in the wind.百叶窗在风中发出嘎嘎声。
7 attachment POpy1     
n.附属物,附件;依恋;依附
参考例句:
  • She has a great attachment to her sister.她十分依恋她的姐姐。
  • She's on attachment to the Ministry of Defense.她现在隶属于国防部。
8 zoom VenzWT     
n.急速上升;v.突然扩大,急速上升
参考例句:
  • The airplane's zoom carried it above the clouds.飞机的陡直上升使它飞到云层之上。
  • I live near an airport and the zoom of passing planes can be heard night and day.我住在一个飞机场附近,昼夜都能听到飞机飞过的嗡嗡声。
9 sentimental dDuzS     
adj.多愁善感的,感伤的
参考例句:
  • She's a sentimental woman who believes marriage comes by destiny.她是多愁善感的人,她相信姻缘命中注定。
  • We were deeply touched by the sentimental movie.我们深深被那感伤的电影所感动。
10 socket jw9wm     
n.窝,穴,孔,插座,插口
参考例句:
  • He put the electric plug into the socket.他把电插头插入插座。
  • The battery charger plugs into any mains socket.这个电池充电器可以插入任何类型的电源插座。
11 longing 98bzd     
n.(for)渴望
参考例句:
  • Hearing the tune again sent waves of longing through her.再次听到那首曲子使她胸中充满了渴望。
  • His heart burned with longing for revenge.他心中燃烧着急欲复仇的怒火。
12 grief DfHxP     
n.悲伤,悲痛,悲伤的事,悲痛的缘由
参考例句:
  • Don't allow yourself to sink into grief,it can do no good.不要使自己陷入悲哀之中,这样一点好处也没有。
  • After her mother died,she abandoned herself to grief.母亲死后,她沉浸于悲痛之中。
13 harry heBxS     
vt.掠夺,蹂躏,使苦恼
参考例句:
  • Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天,人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
  • Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。
14 weaver LgWwd     
n.织布工;编织者
参考例句:
  • She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快,而且布的质量很好。
  • The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

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