Frank Jermyn:
Today after Lucy brought our kids to school I walked into town to purchase some art supplies for my prints and I came across an advertisement for a brand new type of camera called the tourist multiple. The camera is quite expensive, but my personal art and photography studios have really been successful in the decade since I’ve been back from Africa so I should be able to afford it. Speaking of Africa, I am deeply disappointed this camera wasn’t out yet while I was there. This camera is small so it is very portable, also it has an exceptionally high capacity at over 700 slides of film on a single roll, also the quick shutter speed would have allowed me to take photographs of the wildlife I saw without having to stand around forever. I need not reminisce on the past though, I will get great use from this camera going forward, my children have started grade school and this camera will let me chronicle their lives more thoroughly as they grow up so I will have far more content to put in this journal going forward. I have been fortunate to have owned a photography studio and have a wife who owns one so I have been able to see all the advances in technology in the photography industry over the past couple decades. I have also been fortunate to have worked in an industry which I have such a passion for, art and photography is not only my profession, but also my livelihood and I hope to be able to continue it as long as I live.
21st Century-
Frank Jermyn was clearly a passionate man about many things. You can see in this journal entry the passion he has for his career in art and photography and the love he has for his family. Frank was also a very progressive man, both socially and technologically. He is socially progressive because even with children, he still embraces his wife working and not just being a stay home mom and also he is sending his children to school so he clearly values education. Frank’s decision to send his children to school, however, is not purely based on his progressiveness, but also his financial situation, Frank is clearly well off and has a very lucrative career after his travels to Africa and because of this, Frank can afford to send his children to school and not have them join the workforce early as many lower class children of the time had to do in order to help support their families. Frank being well off also allowed him to be technologically progressive by making purchases such as the camera and presumably many other new photographic and artistic supplies. Frank likely made major advances in his career during his trip to Africa which he wrote an earlier journal entry about, assuming he did well on his drawings and portraits in Africa with his party of people who likely became well off through their colonization and exploitation of Africa and its resources (Colonization of Western Africa), he would have gained many new, wealthy, clients when he got back to England.
B, Terry, et al. “Keppler’s Vault 38: Herbert & Huesgen Tourist Multiple.” Mike Eckman Dot Com, 10 Feb. 2023, mikeeckman.com/2019/05/kepplers-vault-38-herbert-huesgen-tourist-multiple/.
“Colonization of Western Africa.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., www.britannica.com/place/western-Africa/Colonization. Accessed 12 Oct. 2023.