Not Quite Subway

The print of the month is a sterling example or what the short Lee Friedlander quote on the banner of my website states:

"You don't have to go looking for pictures. The material is generous. You go out and the pictures are staring at you.}

On my photography group's email there has been a brief thread about photographs taken on subways. I did a series I called "Waiting at Bay D" -- the dock in the Seattle downtown bus tunnel (when it was a bus tunnel) where I waited for the express bus to the east side. Alas, Metro decided that photographing in the tunnel was a no-no (except of course for all the people with cell phone cameras.) But I digress.

I expanded this project to waiting for public transportation or being on public transportation and continued to add the occasional print to the collection. There are about 40 in the project now and this is one of my favorites.

I love the sight lines in this print -- the girl staring blankly out the opposite window, the guy on the left talking on an imaginary phone to his neighbor, the guy on the right seeming to be checking out the blondes ....

William Klein said "Memories, that’s the thing about photography. I look at the contact sheet and it brings back everything." Boy did he get it right with this photograph!

Central Camera., Under the EL, Wabash Avenue, Chicago.

They had a spider-legged tripod in their show window with an 1899 Kodak on it -- the first type of camera that the grandfather of the current owners sold. The store is your typical old-city format, narrow but very deep with an aisle down the middle and a treasure trove of old and new cameras, film, (some digital and I'm sure a lot more now.) and accessories.

A balcony over the back half of the showroom floor is the office. The two (ahem) elderly guys behind the counter have Chacagga accents thick enough to hardly fit through the door but are friendly and helpful (as opposed to the camera stores in New York City).

They had a disastrous fire there in 2000 or so and I presumed that that was the end but not so.