Found Photographs
Full disclosure—I just read an article in the Times that inspired me to do this. A favorite pass time of mine for a long long time has been sifting through thousands and thousands of slides, negatives, and photo prints at flea markets and junk stores looking for treasures. From New York City to Rome, Paris and anywhere I stumble in to in between, there I find myself—standing for hours on end, neck craned up at the nearest light source, holding up slide after slide, letting the light shine through—looking for magic. Photographs from a simpler time. Photographs of people and pets and planes and recognizable buildings and eyebrow raising moments. Over the years I’ve printed and framed one or two, but I’ve mostly kept these photographs to myself, studying them every so often to the point I’m so familiar with them that I feel like I was there when they were taken. Or that I even took them myself.
But I didn’t. And I don’t know these people. But somehow looking at these is always comforting. And whoever took these photos had no idea that they would impact somebody they never met. And I like the idea of keeping these people and moments alive, never to fade away.
I’ll end this with a quote from the aforementioned article. The last paragraph incase you don’t get all the way through:
“The neuroscientist and author David Eagleman has written that we all die three deaths: “The first is when the body ceases to function. The second is when the body is consigned to the grave. The third is that moment, sometime in the future, when your name is spoken for the last time.” I would say there’s a fourth: the moment the last remaining picture of you is seen for the final time. These found photographs not only remind me of this delicate thing we run both toward and away from — time — but they also hold something else. The humbling, steadying truth that, one day, that’s all we’ll be: a photo.”
Here are a few favorites from my collection:
Creating in Place
We’re all starting to see productions pick back up again after a user generated content “now, more than ever” sprint. We were lucky enough to do a quick commercial for Lowe’s using our own kitchen, my hand, and our dog Sal. We worked through a new company called Create in Place that connects agencies and brands directly with photographers and directors that have the ability to shoot in their homes.
We were able to do this shoot completely remote by giving clients and agency a live feed out of the camera as well as talking with them directly on Zoom for immediate feedback.
Ironically we were having a new dishwasher installed as we were awarded the job. So over the next five days we accumulated four dishwashers in our home. We ended up keeping the Maytag that’s in the commercial. It’s really really nice.
This was one of the most efficient productions we’ve been involved in – an award five days before the shoot, two days of prop shopping, four people on set, one day of shooting, and about a week of post before it shipped.
The Golden Age
In a time when flying seems like a thing of the past, I’ve been obsessed with flying in the past.
The dawn of the commercial aviation jet age in the 1950s and 1960s saw a big transition in the visual identity of airlines and the industry in general. The conversation was no longer that you could physically get from London to New York in the air vs on the water, but that you were getting there faster and in a sleek new piece of technology. I’m particularly obsessed with the simple, space-age, mid-century design. It feels innovative. It feels exciting. It feels uplifting.
Not since the Concorde have there been exciting advances in commercial aviation and it’s left us looking back with admiration.
The most exciting thing to happen to airline travel recently is the opening of the TWA Hotel at JFK. Visiting the hotel a few months back before a flight had me feeling like I traveled back in time. I played with the rotary phones, walked through the Catch Me If You Can tunnel, and had a negroni aboard the landlocked Constellation. It was welcome nostalgia of a more romantic time before walking back through the tunnel, down the elevator, and back in to 2019.
So let’s all make a negroni and raise our glasses to taking off again soon.
Re-organization meditation
We’ve been lucky enough to remain healthy during the past few months. We’ve spent our time creating, thinking soul searching, walking in nature, listening, learning, posting, noticing, showing up when we can, sleeping, calling family, and wondering what life will be like tomorrow, in a month, in a year.
I have a somewhat scary hobby of collecting things – antiques, vintage clothes, tiny bowls…so many tiny bowls. One thing I’ve found particularly meditative is to reorganize our open shelving to be the perfect balance of functional and inspiring.
Black and white minimalist
My favorite of all – simple and functional, utilizing the top shelf to display some of my favorite sculptural shapes.
The pink ladies
A more decorative display of depression glass gifted to me by my grandmother. I lost the battle for pink tile during the renovation so my rebuttal is to display every piece of pink glass I own in one place.
I’ll follow the sun
I thought this was my least favorite version but the color yellow makes me very happy. This one is like going to the summer side of the kitchen. I only bake one thing (Alison Roman’s Turmeric Lemon Loaf) so the top shelf is a great place to store baking ingredients, keeping the bottom shelf for everyday use.