No Checks! No Minors! Don't Make Trouble!

... to think that his mama cuddled him as a little boy and called him darling. Now he is probably pleased to get through the day without any real problems. I would love it if he turned out to be a subterranean artist like Henry Darger, filling manuscript after manuscript with an alternative universe.

Like many of my close-up portraits, this guy didn't have any real instructions from me, and this photo was taken in a thrice, yet somehow I managed to show him by body language or otherwise, just how I wanted him to look, which didn't really come hard for him, since that was exactly how he looked anyway. In other words, I wanted him to look natural. The slight smirk is from his jowls, probably wondering at this 'kid' giving him some sort of cues about how to 'be' for a photo he never anticipated before that 'kid' just disappeared.

 

Not so long I met a Russian who befriended a house painter from long ago who turned out to have be a muralist and artist from the '40s and '50s, whose work was stunning and one of a kind. He had painted with his wife, later long deceased and then just turned to painting houses where he met his fellow Russian, a self-styled Christian Evangelist who succeeded in getting half his estate when the ancient guy finally died including some prime San Francisco property together with the art which was (so far as I can tell) just wholesaled.

 

In fact, the other half was destined for an aged sister, who sent a nephew or some such to look after her interest, and I'd be surprised if she ever saw a penny (or kopeck) or her half of this sizable fortune -- the 'evangelist' and the nephew being two of a kind.

 

And I am semi-certain this art treasure was squandered, and since I had knowledge of this, I was shut out of further knowledge . . . lest I tell someone, anyone of what was going on. (I did not represent anyone).

 

Lesson: Beware of evangelists and especially when they're getting 'inheritances' from 'close friends' for the benefit of 'God's work' as he seemed to live rather 'high on the hog' for a guy who painted houses and did 'God's work' on the side.

 

Calling oneself an evangelist and proselytizing in the US Russian community earns one a sizable cachet, and I suppose the aged are willing to give you their 'inheritance', but for what good?

 

I'll have to look up your alternative universe guy -- I think I may know who he is . . . . .

 

But I'll verify through Google.com

 

Thanks, as always.

 

John (Crosley)

let me pay homage to a great photographer at work in the street. One of your lifetime bests: a photo that presents a character, his surroundings and a story / mood. To my eyes this one seems a "necessary" shot, one of those photos that you "must" shoot. It's always a pleasure to browse your portfolio: "You never know what you're gonna get", :-) ciao, Giuseppe

'you never know what you're gonna get' and a 'must take shot'.

 

Those are words I live by.

 

Just go out on the street, and see what is interesting, then take it.

 

It's always been thus and always will be with me, I hope.

 

I'm proud that I have such wide-ranging interests that people share the captures I make.

 

In a way, as I told the clerk of the where I'm staying who once majored in archaeology: 'You want to see a fossil' I asked her, as we discussed the latest hominid find in Africa?

 

She said enthusiastically 'Yes!''

 

I said 'just look at me, I'm that fossil', as I walked away from her front counter.

 

This is a shot taken by a man, now a little bit of a fossil.

 

This is a shot from the existence of humanity dug from within the strata of time, fully preserved, my fossil or mummy, carefully preserved for future generations to enjoy.

 

He was almost a fossil when I took his photo; more now.

 

Thanks Giuseppe; I'm glad to learn you've been browsing. It warms my heart.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)