Review - Early Exposures
A Photographic Memoir
by Bill Pennell
FriesenPress, 2017
Review by Bob Lane
Nov 28th 2017 (Volume 21, Issue 48)

A memoir (from French: mémoire: memoria, meaning memory or reminiscence) is a collection of memories that an individual writes about moments or events, both public or private, that took place in the subject's life. The assertions made in the work are understood to be factual.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MEMOIR. The voice is first person singular: I, not we, one, or you. The memoirist is the main character, the someone for readers to be within the story. The writer's thoughts and feelings, reactions and reflections, are revealed.

Many will remember one of the most famous of all memoirs: a young boy got in trouble for some petty theft which bothered him so much that he later straightened himself out, converted to Christianity, and eventually became a bishop. The "I" of that memoir is brutally honest about his various troubles, relates his prolific sex life in detail, and proceeds to look inward to his "soul's eye" where he caught a glimpse of "the immutable light higher than my mind." That, of course, was Aurelius Augustinus or Saint Augustine in his book "Confessions".

One internet source tells us that the memoir has the following properties:

Pennell's book is rich, partly because, in addition to fulfilling the above characteristics of the genre, it also adds black and white photographs which were taken from the many locations at the times indicated by the text. It is the photographic record of a talented photographer who is now looking back on the places and persons depicted in the pictures. "Early Exposures: A Photographic Memoir chronicles the travels of photographer Bill Pennell to five exotic parts of the world: Wales, Borneo, Mauritius, the interior of British Columbia, and the Canadian West Coast. Remembering his journey through stunning black-and-white photography as well as colourful personal accounts, Pennell covers a ten-year period in his late twenties and early thirties: 1969 – 1979."

It is a highly personal account of a young man journeying to many parts of the world with his cameras to "see" those places and to record the sights as he continues his education as a biologist. He travels by boat, car, train, bicycle, and foot to see these places in a way that is now gone forever. And he writes about those journeys in a clear and concise way – telling us about the places, the plants and the people that he meets on the way. The photographs are not simply added to the text but rather the text and the photographs work together to give the book its life and vitality.

In the last paragraph of the epilogue, Pennell writes:

As we age, we often become more cautious, and our society is becoming increasingly risk averse. As I have revisited these early memories of my adventures, I stand somewhat amazed that I was so apparently fearless; spending days by myself on a giant mountain, travelling up the Rajang River in dugout canoes, or along tropical coasts in small freight boats, by myself, far from any communication. I suppose this was just youth in all its glory.

So, if you are like me, get out a map, so you will know where you are visiting as you go around the world and back in time with Dr. Bill Pennell.

© 2017 Bob Lane

Bob Lane is an emeritus professor of philosophy and religious studies at Vancouver Island University.