Une photographie, c'est un fragment de temps qui ne reviendra pas.

(A photo is a fragment of a time that won't come again.)

- Martine Franck

„Since O'Jack was the only photographer that I knew, I asked him to teach me everything about photography“, Mr Tuniak said. “O'Jack was of course willing to help, but he didn't have an unlimited amount of time. He did recommend me several schools that offered training courses and seminars.”

“And you went there?”, I asked.

Alexander came home and threw his backpack on the ground. It slithered several metres across the floor and nearly landed in the fire place, where Mowgli was just starting a fire.

“Do you want me to burn that too?”, Mowgli asked.

“I guess they didn't take you at the school”, Sarina said. She was lying on the couch in the living room and looked up from her newspaper.

“No, they have”, Alexander said, but he didn't seem particularly happy about the news.

“So, what's the problem then?”, Mowgli asked.

“Do you know how long it takes to become a professional photographer?”, Alexander asked. “And according to the curriculum, most of it is just sitting in a room and listening to someone talking about theory. If I wanted that, I would have stayed at the university.”

“I really doubt it will be like that”, Sarina said. “But if you don't want to study, you better look for a job where you don't have to learn anything.”

“It's not learning that I have a problem with”, Alexander said. “It's the way things are taught.”

“Is school going to be very different in the future?”, Mowgli asked.

“I don't know”, Alexander admitted. “Once the 21^st century starts, everyone will be using digital cameras, so it's no use going there. Oh!”

“What?”, Mowgli asked.

“I could travel into the past and learn everything about photography there”, Alexander said. “I'll learn all the necessary things. The principles haven't changed that much, I'm sure. And I can quickly catch up on the few things that have changed. Without wasting several years. Sarina!”

“I know, I know.” Sarina sighed. “You want me to help you find out everything about the early pioneers of photography. The day after tomorrow, ok?”

“Back then I developed a method of learning I kept for the rest of my life”, Mr Tuniak said.

“Travelling back to the beginning of whatever profession interested you and learning it from the ground up?”, I asked.

“Not just professions”, Mr Tuniak said. “Later, a lot later, when I learned to drive a car, I did the same thing. Technologies might change, but the principles and theories behind them rarely do.”

“So you always got your knowledge from the people who invented the things you were interested in?”, I asked.

“Precisely. And it has proved to be quite useful. When my cars broke down, for instance, I was able to repair them myself most of the time.”

“And where did you go to become a photographer?”

“Well, photography was basically invented in the late 1820ies in France. So that's where I went first”, Mr Tuniak explained. “But I didn't stay long. The methods were too different then. It took another twenty years, before the process started to resemble the one used in my present.”

“Your present being the 1970ies?”, I asked to clarify.

“Yes”, Mr Tuniak said. He put a photo album on the table. “Do you want to see some of my first shots?” He opened it. Right on the first page there was a picture of him, around the age of 25. It was slightly smaller than the size of the average playing card and the name 'Alexander Khanna' was written below it. “That's the name I used back then”, Mr Tuniak explained. “I claimed to come from Indian aristocracy and this was my carte de visite. Coming from a noble family, I was able to sponsor several inventors without attracting attention.”

“How did you get the necessary money?”

“I'm a time traveller, it's easy. And I had the help of the Spider and Philip has always been one of the wealthiest people on the planet”, Mr Tuniak laughed. “Of course, none of the inventors every actually asked me, where I got my money. Most of them were happy about the financial support I offered and allowed me to test or use their inventions in return.”

“Doesn't that mean that modern photography was developed thanks to you?”, I asked.

“Yes, in part, although I didn't realise it at the time.” For a moment there was a strange look on Mr Tuniak's face, a mixture of sadness and regret. Then he turned the page. There were a lot of photos in the album and every single one told a story.

“What is that?”, Alice asked, as Alexander was leaving the time machine. In his hands he was holding something that she had thought to be a rifle at first. But the barrel was too short for that and at its end there was big, black wheel.

“My good friend Jules let me borrow it”, Alexander said. “Or I'm sure he would have, if I had asked him.”

“You stole it?”, Alice asked.

“I paid for it... more or less”, Alexander said. “And I will take it back.” He pointed to the time machine behind him. “He won't even notice that it was gone.”

“And what is it?”

“ A fusil photographique”, Alexander said. “A camera gun.”

Together they entered the villa, where they found Mowgli.

“Are you planning to join a hunting party?”, he asked grimacing.

“Don't worry, the only thing this gun shoots is photos”, Alexander assured him. “It can shoot up to twelve photos in one second. Now: Where are your dogs, I want to test it?”

He turned a page.

Several days later Alexander returned again with a new camera. This one looked as if someone had taken two separate cameras and melted them together.

“Where have you been this time?”, Bill asked during dinner.

“1902 or 1903, I think”, Alexander answered.

“And what kind of camera is that?”

“A 3D-camera”, Alexander explained. “It shoots two photos at the same time from slightly different angles. Combining these two pictures, you can then create a 3D photo.”

“Like that film they showed in cinemas some time ago?”, Mowgli asked. “The Frankenstein film?”

“Oh, that one was terrible”, Alice said. She shuddered visibly. “Those are ninety minutes of my life I'd like to forget.”

He turned a page.

Alexander had asked during dinner if someone wanted to accompany him the next day. He said that he would follow a camera man who was shooting footage of a war for news reels. But the way he said it, seemed off to his friends. He asked them with a smile and not at all in the manner of someone who was going to see a battle field with hundreds of dead soldiers the next day.

Mowgli and Sarina decided to take him up on his offer.

“Here we are”, Alexander declared. “England, 1897.”

“There was no war in England at that time”, Sarina said.

“Not in England, no, but it is the time of the Greco-Turkish-War.”

They exited the time machine and Alexander led them along a road and into a small village. They continued walking. At the other side of the village they came upon several trenches. Soldiers were sitting on top of them and were talking with each other and drinking tea. Some way ahead there were additional fortifications and several officers were exercising their horses.

“What kind of war is that?”, Mowgli asked. Then he saw the spot lights and cameras. “That's a film set! They are shooting a film!”

“We are doing a report”, one of the camera operators said. He greeted Alexander, whom he had met before, and showed the three of them around.

“Does that mean you are re-creating the battles of the war here with actors? And the stuff you shoot here you are presenting as 'real' footage in the news reels?”, Sarina asked. The idea of reporters lying that openly and blatantly to their audience seemed to be a personal insult to her.

“Of course”, the camera operator replied. “It's much safer here than on a real battlefield. And the light is also better.” He lit a cigarette. “I had a friend, went to Mexico to film some rebels and their attacks there. Had a terrible time getting shots that he could use... Finally, he had to ask the rebels to attack only during the day, because he needed the sun light to shoot. Lucky for him, they agreed, because they wanted to be filmed as much as he wanted to film them. I guess Villiers is having similar problems right now.”

“There was one disadvantage in the way I was pursuing my... education”, Mr Tuniak said. “I learned everything a professional photographer should know, but I had no way to prove it.”

“You had no references you could show in your job interviews”, I said. “Couldn't you fake them again?”

“I could have, but I chose another way. I asked O'Jack and he suggested to put together a portfolio of my work. If it was good enough, if it was liked, then no one would ask about my qualifications. But of course the catch was that I had to have not only very good photos, but if possible photos very few other people ever shot.”

“So what did you do?”

“Doryanthes in Australia!” Alexander put the encyclopaedia down on the table and pointed to the drawing. “That's what I want to shoot.”

“But you haven't even visited London's sewers yet”, Mowgli said. “Maybe you'll find some crocodiles there.”

Alexander ignored the laughter of the others that followed this remark. To get photos for his portfolio he had returned to the sewers of Paris to get a good shot of a rat king, a very rare animal and one he had discovered by accident several years ago. He had then heard rumours of crocodiles living in the sewers of New York and spent three days there trying to get a picture of them too. Without success. In the end he had had to admit that the animals didn't exist.

“It's only blooming every ten years or so”, said Sarina, who had quickly read the entry in the encyclopaedia. “That would be a very rare photo.”

“And she can survive bush fires”, Alexander added. “I can already imagine the photo: A burnt wasteland, ashes everywhere and then, right in the middle a single flower in full bloom.”

“Can I come with you?”, Alice asked and Bill decided to join him as well.

The next several days they spent in Australia and tried to locate the flower. They read old news paper reports to find out when and where the last big bush fires had taken place and this way found a very likely date and location for Alexander's photo.

“It's going to be unique, I promise you that”, Alexander said. The time machine had just arrived at their destination. “We'll be the only people who'll ever shoot a photo like that.”

But as Alexander exited, he saw that the flower was not alone. It was surrounded by a dozen people. They were all Alexander himself.

“What am I doing here?”, Alexander asked, but the others just waved and grinned.

Alice repeated the question and one of the other Alexanders took her aside and answered her quietly. “The first photo he's going to shoot won't be good”, he explained. “And he won't like the second one that much either. He – or I – will return several times here, before getting a perfect picture.”

The photo of the Doryanthes flower was on the final page of the album. It really was perfect.

NEXT WEEK:

Once more upon the waters! Yet once more!