Selective Memory... 1977 flat.

1977...

A portrait in absentia!

 

All the required accoutrements for an evening well spent, textures, patterns, and designs abounding to suggest the life that is the potential of this scene. Coffee, cigarettes, booze, and books. The seventies you say? Indeed! A seventies party in a fifties room, chair, wallpaper, tablecloth. A wonderful black and white photo that sings the colors to us anyway.

Wonderful! Superb light and b/w.

Carlos - Great shot! Have to mention the reading material---very 70s. Most needed drink and/or smoke to take on Fellini. ~~~~~~~~L

Marvelous picture. I love that it's at an odd angle as if the viewer is just passing through. Lovely detail. I'd love to study it much bigger as I'm sure there's a whole wealth of information there.

Circa???

 

 

This looks like before Martha Stewart and her rabid sense of order and taste ruined the world.

 

 

I like the light shade. Like a diamond in the sky.

 

 

Or perhaps Lucy in the sky with diamonds.

 

 

Or some iteration.

Fantastic image, Carlos.

Take care,

Mário

The other day I was watching this program on MTV (yes, really, MTV) where they tour the houses of different celebrities. I didn't catch the owner's name and don't know anything about him except that his father used to play for the Pittsbugh Pirates or Cincinatti or someone. What really struck me was the immense size of the rooms, so big that the furniture was dwarfed; imagine Barbie's living room furniture set in the middle of a regular sized ballroom. The enormity of the rooms seemed to reduce the people to insignificant jots in the vast emptiness. The intent of the program was to wow us with the sheer scale of this man's accomplishments as reflected in his possessions. On me it had the opposite effect; I couldn't help thinking "how sad.". This picture tells us a lot about the person or people who lived here and the same was true of that poor man and his modern day Citizen Kane movie set. It told us more than he could imagine.

Aint it great how shots from the past take on a certain weight years later? I too would love to see this bigger...to study the details more, to smell the scotch and remember a simpler time.

This seems homey to me & Jack McRitchie is a wise man.

Hmmmm. Matching drapes & place mats, wallpaper & table cloth. How cool is that? Scotch from a mug? I don't thinks so! Best, LM.

the lamp shadow looks like a giant butterfly...in fact more frightening than a butterfly...I really like the mood of this images...quite a contrast between the Fellini book and the $Million poster on the wall...

… you got my number Fred: coffee, cigarettes, booze, and books, add a little love and you pretty much addressed the essentials back then – in fact the same is true today -- but for cigarettes, which I unchained myself from twenty years ago. Love your words. Keep them coming. And thanks again.

Thank you Gunnar… I too like the way the light works here… thanks.

Thank you Linda… the French have a saying Plus Ça Change, Plus C'est Pareil which more or less translates “the more things change the more they stay the same”.

Sue… Thank you… Checking the self of the past through picture details -- a kind of forensic thrill I love …

Jeff… “…before Martha Stewart and her rabid sense of order and taste ruined the world”… ;-))) Thank you for the laugh and thank you for the nod toward my elegant digs (I know you’re a man of taste, else you wouldn’t have noticed). And thank you for landing such a fine jab on Martha… There was a time I wanted to get one in myself, I fantasized an overhead roundhouse, or maybe come in close and sneak a deadly Tyson uppercut – she deserves it man – yes, she got some jail time, but it was more playground than jail…

Obrigado Mário… tanto aprecio as tuas visitas…

Jack… I’m glad the picture caught your attention -- I thought you may appreciate it before I uploaded, so I’m happy you visited and commented. The MTV outline of the show you mention recalls another time of excess in the eighties when Reagan legislated massive tax cuts for the wealthiest americans. His budget office director underpinned and sold the political move with the theory of supply side economics which proposed the very rich understood money far better than most and would naturally know how to best disperse all that cash throughout the economy, with enormous benefits trickling down to the masses. Even if inferior in scale to what Bush & gang wrought years later, it was a fantastic con job that really shaped a narrative that extravagant conspicuous wealth was something to celebrate with vigor and pride, rather than shame or reserve. One TV show that invested in the premise was called the Life of the Rich and famous. I don’t know if it showed in Osaka but I’m sure you’d have been amused.

Drew… as much as memory overlaps with longing and nostalgia -- in the way we remember things I mean -- objectively speaking the seventies were a real groove…

Thank you Mike… homey is what it was like, the right word to describe the place. I loved living there… The rest of your comment is evident to all.

what’s up with the snobbery... ‘… Scotch from a mug'… ??? Content is what counts here and we talking twelve year old Ballantine's. But then you’re probably a Glenlivich guy, right? Thanks Len… Always delighted with your visits.

thank you Laurent, yea, there is a bit of the butterfly thing going on and also the peacock…

Glad you notice the ultra cool lottery poster. In the late seventies the Canadian federal government figured the extraordinary revenue potential to be had in gambling and created a lottery corporation. I become an instant fan and the salesman from whom I purchased my tickets gave me the poster. It was a really hilarious poster. Very clever. While framing this picture unfortunately I didn’t see the significance of what was written on the top -- PICTURE YOURSELF WITH A...-- and then you could actually see your reflection in the silvery rounded glossy 'mirror', with $Million written below ... I photographed a few of my friends looking at themselves in the wacky mirror, their reflected faces somewhat distorted. I’d prod them… Come on… I want a picture here… you’re a goddamn millionaire now... I want you to BELIEVE…. give me the look… Picture Yourself a Millionaire.

Fiat Lux..!!! Seeing Fellini on the table, this is a nice reminder of 'La Dolce Vita' fifty years after the release date...Thank you and compliments Carlos.

Snobbery? Well, perhaps, but.................! Ok, Ok, I'll 'fess up, sooner or later someone's going to Google it anyway & blow my secret of 47 years. In 1963, while on manoeuvers when serving in the military in northern Germany, I drank cheap wine from a tin cup. There! Now I can sleep nights again. Best, LM.

daydreaming can be fun sometimes but really, who wants to be a millionaire anyway? Too many worries ;-) The atmosphere here is great but then, with Fellini and a bit of Ballantines it would be.

or "life is nice". i love a lot also light here

hi carlos i wonder what this mans table would look like today? i am sure he has made his million by now. many vices here but very well organized. very nicely done......samme

:) Great!

These kind of shots have so much to say about someone which is why they are one of my favorite types of photographs; I could look at this for a long time discovering little by little, the layers of a person. Interesting and very well done. Thank you for sharing. :)