End of an era: Worldwide Camera shuts its doors for the final time. | Savannah, Georgia

Worldwide Camera was the store tucked into the corner of Abercorn Plaza for almost forty years that embodied the same sense of place as Ellis Island.  While we weren’t the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free as inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, Tom and Pam Coffer welcomed the dreamers, the artists, the idealists, the believers and non-believers alike.

When I moved to Savannah, Georgia in 1997 to take a first grade teaching position with the Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools, I brought along my love for photography and sought out a lab where I could get the film developed.

Worldwide Camera started out as my lab, and when Tom hired me to work there I was over the moon.  It was inspiring to be around other people who shared a passion for photography and were determined to capture the world through their lens.  It was humbling to know so little about the technical side of photography, and yet have a whole community of photographers of whom I could ask questions.

Within the walls of this store, everyone who clicked a shutter was a photographer.  It was your technical expertise and your vision that defined you, but at Worldwide Camera there was no hierarchy of skill or competition among colleagues or clients.  Whether it was Jack Leigh coming in for photographic paper or local residents dropping off their film shot over the weekend at their neighborhood cookout, this was the spot where everyone gathered.

It also makes up a part of my personal history – of who I am today.  It’s where I signed up for my first e-mail (it was a Lycos address…).

It’s where I met celebrities like Ben Affleck and his mom while they shopped for and bought a camera (okay, maybe ‘met’ is a bit of a strong word…more like I stared at them from 5 feet away.  No hands shaken; no eyes meeting, but who’s nit-picking here?)

It’s where I saw the entrepreneurial spirit in action with Bobby “Picture Man” Hall and his Polaroid camera.  Chances are if you were out drinking with friends in downtown Savannah in the 1990s, Bobby captured your festivities and sold you the white-framed photo for $5 in his heyday.

It’s also where I walked in on a Tuesday afternoon and learned about the shootings that occurred at Columbine.  I can still recall standing in the doorway that led to the main part of the store and looking up at the television mounted on the wall.  I can’t remember how many of us stood there, looking up at the screen, but I know that not one of us spoke.  We all stood and listened as the news unfolded.  We are deeply moved when we see destruction and comforted when we realize we have a place to belong.

Worldwide Camera is also where I met one of my dearest friends, Valli, who I later roomed with (and her sister), and she said yes to being one of my bridesmaids.  We have stood side by side shooting events, and almost twenty years later, I love that she and I meet up when geography and timing allows.

While camera phones may have replaced the point and shoot camera for every day usage, these are still in demand.  When friends tell me they are going to Paris for the first time and want to take a good camera – not their phones and not a big camera – they choose a point and shoot.  When friends who are photographers also want to take a camera along on their camping trips, road trips, and family trips, they, too, choose a point and shoot camera.

While digital photography and online labs have taken more of the market share in the last 10 years, it is the mom and pops shop like Worldwide Camera that have showed me how to hone my craft.  Every time I move, I find the equivalent of Worldwide Camera in my new location.

On a recent visit to Savannah, I popped in to catch up with Tom and Pam, when Tom told me I was just in time, as my next visit wouldn’t include this location.  After almost forty years in business, they closed their doors for the final time yesterday, Sunday, July 31^st.

This is the last exposure on the roll of film that is Worldwide Camera. This is the end of an era.  Thank you to Tom and Pam Coffer for all the advice, the patience, and the encouragement over the years.