Throwback Thursday - Hasselblad at Photo East in '92

Left to right: Skip Cohen, Roger Layton, Bengt Förssbaeck, Jim Morton and Peter Power

by Skip Cohen

Throwback Thursdays are even more fun when your friends send you old images. I just got an IM from Clay Blackmore who found this image in his files, and it's a pretty special photograph.
 
He photographed five of us in the Hasselblad booth at what was then called Photo East, now PPE, in 1992. Clay sending it to me is a perfect example of the fun of the friendships we share in this industry, but something else makes the photograph special.

Bengt Förssbaeck, in the middle, was Hasselblad's worldwide VP of Marketing. We lost Bengt to cancer a year or two after I left Hasselblad in 1999. We were both incredibly passionate about marketing and the company. Over the years, the fights we had in Board meetings became legendary, but so did our friendship. We were the very best of friends, and there's rarely a week that goes by that something doesn't come up to remind me how much I miss him.
 
One more great thing about this photograph - in the middle of the pandemic, it's important to look in your rearview mirror and not forget the goal to get back to the good old days. We're all dealing with a new norm, but being self-quarantined makes those walks down Memory Lane even more valuable.

And, if you're a family photographer, use Throwback Thursday as a way to promote the importance of capturing memories. Share older photographs on your blog as a way to remind Mom the pandemic isn't slowing down the kids growing up, and the importance of a new family portrait.

Happy Throwback Thursday!​