The Picture on the Penny

(I know. It's a cent, not a penny. The U.S. does not have any currency called a penny. But cent does not alliterate with picture.)

(Only I would start out a post with a parenthetical, right?)

On Fridays I usually try to leave you with something fun to see or visit for the weekend, but I just couldn't get to work yesterday. It's been a heckuva week. And I'm fried.

Summer reading
So here you go—two things. First of all, the Times* published a nice list of Summer Reading books. Of course they recommended as "Summer" reading more books than I read in an entire year, but never mind. The authors of the article did a nice thing—instead of putting each book under its own subhead, they wove the discussion of one book into the next, which caused me to read far more of them than I would have if I were scanning subtitles.

So in the Historical Fiction segment of the list I discovered a novel called The Bohemians by Jasmin Darznik. It's fiction, but is narrated in the first person by Dorothea Lange! I'm way too conservative about, you know, reality to be comfortable with this as a literary strategy, but apparently it's a thing that's now done. (I did read Grendel by John Gardner after reading Beowulf, but as "the real" Grendel was mythical, that's a bit different. Although Dorothea is a "monster" in the sense of being huge as a celebrity among Photo-Dawgs.) Anyway the author imagines what Dorothea is saying and thinking and that's the basis of the book. Ansel Adams and Imogen Cunningham, among other luminaries of Old San Francisco, put in cameo appearances.

Interesting. If you read the book, I'd love to know what you think.

The picture in your pocket
Second thing: "Pawn Stars" is not the place I'd expect to encounter a drop-dead great photograph, but the picture in this little video segment is just way, way cool—the photographer, the subject, the signature, the format (first time I've ever heard the term "parlor card," by the way—all such things were always cartes de visite in my reading) and what the picture was the basis for. The appraiser says it's "the top of the pyramid," and I can sure see why. I wouldn't want the responsibility of owning this, but it really does have it all as they say. Wow.

Enjoy.

Mike

*I live in New York. I know "The Times" = "...of London" in the UK, but to a New Yorker "the Times" is The New York Times. As a New Yorker I also read The New Yorker, come to that. Have a nice weekend!

Book of Interest this week:

Ralph Eugene Meatyard: American Mystic (Fraenkel Gallery, 2017). An excellent introduction to Meatyard's quirky, spooky worlds. "Photography is a dream of awaking to a world still dewed in sleep." And Fraenkel Gallery's productions are always a cut above. The link is a doorway to Amazon.

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Comments

[Richard Parkin]

I’m not sure that any country has a penny any more. We (U.K.) do still have coin with “One Penny” written on it but it’s been in imminent danger of withdrawal for years and is currently worth less than the equivalent of one-fifth of a half-farthing (one eighth of a real pre-decimal Penny) which was withdrawn in 1870! Nobody refers to pennies or pence these days, instead we have something rather inelegantly referred to as a “pee”, the plural is also “pee”. That’s my two penn’orth anyway, I couldn’t give tuppence for anyone else’s ;)!

[Andrew Bearman]

Wow that's a good episode of Pawn Stars. The seller was smart to take the $100K. He won't be cheated (it's TV!) and no auction house will take its cut, either. Quite a return of investment from whatever he paid at the neighborhood estate sale. That's why you put in the shoe leather work visiting such sales.

I found a Nikon 35ti for $30 once and a Yashica T4 for $5. You gotta show up, though, to meet luck.

Your selling advice is excellent. How do you avoid scams when you sell on eBay? Do you limit to North America? I hear of so many horror stories where ebay sides more often with the buyer.

[Earl Dunbar]

I’ve reserved The Bohemians at my local library - thanks for the tip. I find the first person narrative conceit appealing and fun.

As for Meatyard, I discovered him in the mid-1970s while devouring photo books and magazines at the London (Ontario) Public Library. I think I’ve told the story here before, so I won’t repeat it, but the short biography of Meatyard at the end of the book made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. Literally. There’s a 2007 Meatyard book at the local library that I will have not seen, so I’ll check it out as well.

Perhaps those who know of Meatyard know that by profession he was an optician (or maybe optometrist - I can’t recall exactly) and was a quiet, unassuming man. My father was one of his classmates in high school (that’s a part of the story that I’ve told before) and was quite surprised when I told him that Meatyard was a recognized and celebrated photographer.

[Robert Harshman]

This could save you a lot of time is selling used gear. It's a meta data site that does pretty much what your doing manually for you.

http://bokehmarket.com/