Photo

Our fingers lace,
as if they were always knit;
you guide me into the street,

where centuries of secrets rise
between paving stones,
from under darkroom doors.

Like our first embrace,
my new jacket goes unnoticed 
in monochrome. 

Stolen glance ― snap! 
Your eyes flash Kodak,
encompassing everything north. 

Nothing important is exchanged; 
a few riddles, exhaled laughs, 
camera-shy smiles. 

Under a suspended crescent,
you surprise ― all quick-turn and lips ―
like the Doisneau.



tk/December 2014

Evocative monochrome read by R.A.D. Stainforth...

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You push the button, we do the rest...

My paternal grandfather with camera circa 1940
click to embiggen

It's tradition at Willow Manor to hop in the old green Land Rover and head to the Franklin County Fair Grounds the Friday after Thanksgiving for the season opening of the Scott Antique Show.  Hundreds of vendors set up their booths once a month, from November through March. They happen to have a show in Atlanta, as well, for those of you who live in that southern neck of the woods.  I love to pull my red vinyl two-wheel cart along behind me, in search of buried treasure. 

I picked up a sweet little Brownie Flash Six-20, a 1940 variation of the quintessential American camera for $2.00.  The first Brownie was introduced by Eastman Kodak in February 1900, as a very basic cardboard box camera with a simple meniscus lens that took 2 1/4 inch square pictures on 117 roll film. The Brownie introduced the concept of the snapshot, intended as a camera that anyone cold afford, leading to the popular slogan, "You push the button, we do the rest."  The camera was named after the popular cartoons created by Palmer Cox.