Hello Luminous Landscapes Folks,
This is Joshua Myrvaagnes posting in my father's account. Thanks for being an important community for my father's creative expression.
I just logged in to update folks. My name is Joshua.
My father's memory has been declining a fair bit this past year, and then in July my mother fell and broke her hip, which meant she really couldn't care for him. So he was expedited into a memory care facility in Boston. If you want to visit him, that may be possible, and it's been great for him to have visitors over these last few months. I'd want to have a brief conversation by phone first to screen people just since I don't know you directly. If you want to call it's probably best that he calls you, I've found it hard to get patched through from the front desk there, but you can try. Again, I'd ask you to contact me first. I hope it's Ok to put an email address here, and please forgive my using his account, but I thought it was the best way to communicate the situation.
He has a lot of visitors and sometimes someone can do a cellphone or videoconference call on their phone.
I know that he spent a lot of time exchanging ideas on Luminous Landscapes and found a lot of inspiration here.
Sadly, the last time he visited me this summer out in the country he didn't take out his camera as he had always done anywhere beautiful my entire life. (I used to resent that he slowed us down so much on hikes in the mountains, but later I came to appreciate his amazing talent as a photographer. I needed his words along with the images themselves to get to really see them). He's both still the same person and also not. He has a camera at the memory care place but doesn't take it out much if ever, as far as I know. I can only visit once in a while since I live quite far but my mother gets there every week or two, I'd say.
I have been tasked with handling his many, many boxes of photos, and his photography equipment. I would like any suggestions on what you think he would want. Even before losing his memory he wasn't much of a planner, so I don't think he really thought through how to leave his legacy, and he certainly didn't push his work on people. I'll ask him too of course when I have the chance, but I don't know how clear an answer I'll get, and I don't really have any certain idea where to begin.
Once my mom is out of the woods I hope we can have an exhibit to showcase his whole career, and I'm thinking of giving away lots of the drafts that he's got in piles in the basement, and I'd love to know if anyone wants one and would give them away to friends or charities. I'd like his work to be out in the world more in some form. I imagine that showing the ones from his website would be a good start at least.
I could also use suggestions about what equipment to sell or donate, since sadly it looks like he won't be using it anymore, and some other photographer out there might.
Thanks for any suggestions you can offer and thanks for your friendship to my father.
In community,
Joshua Myrvaagnes
StandingMarmotAT@gmail.com
