Graham Walzer Cinematography

Tools for Science

When I was a kid, my father had drawers packed full of brown glass bottles. They were covered with skull and cross-bone warning labels and reeked of strange sour things “These are not toys Graham, these are tools for science.”

We sat together mixing a homemade explosive that, once dried, would be volatile to the touch. I crouched, watching my father stir the chalky purple mixture. “Now promise me, you will not touch anything until I come back” my dad said. I nodded in reply, unable to look away from the drying paste.

Ten minutes later, I was still staring, I couldn’t resist. I nudged it gently with a stick. Nothing. I poked at it again. Silence. I found a hammer discarded nearby. My father walked back into the garage just as the hammer came crashing down on the dry powder. A deafening bang and purple mushroom cloud engulfed his eight-year-old son. He thought he killed me.

I’ve been photographing my father and his science experiments for a long time. He is not a professional scientist. He is just a dad with a love for chemical reactions and things that go ka-boom.