Buster Keaton and Dorothy Sebastian line up their shots, 1929.
Hypothetical question: Your house is on fire. Everyone is safe. You can run in and rescue one item. What will it be?
The answer, overwhelmingly, is family photos.
We are the sum of our memories. Photos help us capture time and space, preserve moments that otherwise would be lost. I seek the ordinary, the flat reality which is otherwise invisible.
You can click each image to enlarge.
In my local Walgreens I often cruise the aisles marveling at all the varied products. I was delighted to discover an abundance of Christian candles.
On my regular morning walk I recently discovered, at the corner of Beverwil & Cisco, this leftist graffiti. Imbeciles.
I know, this looks like an abstract expressionist canvas from one of Jackson Pollock's ten million imitators. In fact, Casa Avrech was recently painted. The courtyard wall was smothered in Ivy which the painter spent a full day removing. This is the ghostly impression that remained.
A graphically striking garage in Santa Monica.
Approaching the 10 Freeway on Robertson Boulevard I spotted this graphic—which made my eyes bleed. The message is pitched in English and Spanish to drunk drivers, a class of people who, I believe, should have their licenses revoked.
Every morning during my walk I pass this home with white picket fence. It makes me think of the Andy Hardy films, the MGM series starring Mickey Rooney that celebrated the American family. Each film was a moral lesson in which young Andy learned some small measure of wisdom.
Maayan Ariel, American.
Karen and I wish all our friends and relatives a lovely and meaningful Shabbat.
Ariel Chaim Avrech, ZT'L, May His Righteous Memory be a Blessing.
8 Comments
I agree with Franny that you have a good eye. Actually, I would say you have an excellent eye for framing an ordinary scene to make it interesting. Or make one want to see it in person.
Robert, have you ever looked at The Sartorialist blog (the sartorialist.blogspot.com)? Most of the pictures are of ordinary people on the street and yet the images are often stunning. Pictures such as those or yours are evidence that all around us is an interesting world if we take the time to look.
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Johnny:
Thanks so much for the kind words.
I have seen and greatly enjoyed The Sartorialist.
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Robert,
You have a good eye. I’m curious: Have you ever tried your hand as a director?
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Franny:
Yes, I have. I prefer the soltitude of writing.
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Beautiful pictures Robert. In filming the “ordinary” it is fun to look at these pictures 40-50 years down the road and see how extra-ordinary they are. But they have to be seen as a composite.
– but the artwork is what the Hispanics like.
It’s like – walking back in time.
I used to have an eccentric acquaintance who worked with me in the 90s – and once I went to his appt.
It was like stepping back in time – to the 60s. The whole apt was in black lights and full of 60s posters – the kind that come to life with a black lite.
Jimi Hendrix posters,. Janis Joplin. Jefferson Airplane.
Things that would have been “normal” in the 60s now like a little portal of time kept as it was in a certain apt.
On the candles Robert that seems to be a Hispanic thing. Not that Mary Joseph and Jesus aren’t Christian
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Bill:
Your friend’s apat. sounds interesting but kind of sad.
Jimmy Stewart once referred to movies as “pieces of time.” That’s how I think of snapshots.
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Absolutely agree with Stewart’s inspired insight. I read it decades ago. Revisiting those pieces of time is the reason I have my movie collection. If streaming goes away and broadcasting ceases, I have my collection.
BTW, can’t call revolution leftist or rightist or even imbecilic. Remember Jefferson’s statement about revolution? It has been argued — accurately, I think — that it was a reference to tax revolution, the foundation of the American Revolution: probably the only revolution in history to not result in dictatorship.
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Larry:
I’m going to assume that the graffiti I photographed was made by left wingers and not by members of the Tea party. It think that’s just common sense.
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