The Ole Days

I watched a movie recently called "Midnight in Paris". Many of you have probably heard of it or seen it. It's a pretty well known movie, it has Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams in it. A little bit about the movie is that Owen Wilson's character has always wished that he had been from an earlier time. Particularly the 1920's and preferably 1920's in Paris. Well he gets a very unique opportunity to venture into the past and see and live the life of 1920's Paris. He meets F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Cole Porter, Pablo Picasso, and many other artists, musicians, and writers of that time. The story discusses the fixation that some people have on an era or time period that occurred before their own time, and the wish that they could have lived in that time. Anyway it's a good movie and fun to watch. I don't know if everyone has a similar fixation but I believe that I do have that same feeling for the mid-twentieth century in america. I love the products that were manufactured such as the cars, the furniture, the kitchen appliances, electronics, the homes, even the types of dishes that were made. So when I think about the type of things that I'd like to photograph, the things that I find attractive and beautiful, I think of these old things. Neon signs, old spinning barber polls, radios and record players.

 I had fun taking these pictures, and plan on going out and finding some more old stuff to take pictures of. I hope you enjoy these. And if you're interested in the same thing you should look up a cool book that I just bought called, "Bill Wood's Business". Bill is this guy that took photographs back in the 50's in Fort Worth Texas. The best way I can describe it is that he took pictures the same way an accountant does your taxes. He never intended to be artistic or to try to capture the romance of his time. He just took pictures for newspaper ads, informational brochures  and anything that the people of Forth Worth Texas needed a picture of. He died in the 70's and a few years ago all of his negatives were sold off at an estate sale and ended up being put together for an art show in Manhattan. It was a huge hit (some may wonder why, others like me will fall in love with them as well) so they made them into a book.  It's an incredibly genuine look into the past. Really cool stuff.