Baker's Dozen: Objects of Affection

Stephanie Luke
Cottonwood, California, USA

"This image is part of a series I'm currently working on called 'Asphalt Beaches.' It consists of random things I've discovered on the sides of the streets where I live. Generally, I find a lot of debris and trash, but once in a while there is something new and pristine. This balloon drifted by as I was taking my daily walk, so I grabbed it and then destroyed it, in the name of art of course! All pictures are taken outside in the immediate surroundings with my iPhone 13 Pro Max, using a Lightroom app and post-processed with Photoshop."

Wolfgang Gressmann
Germany

"Internally displaced boy with tire in Amran, Yemen, 2011. Leica M6, 28mm, Tri-X @ 200; here's my website."

Douglas Martin
Santa Rosa, California, USA

"This object is my wife’s hiking hat. Of course, she is under it, but I think of this as a photo of a hat, with a few clues to let you know something about the hat."

Ken Ginn
Wakefield, Quebec, Canada

"Found object. Mourning dove feathers. I noticed a flash out of the corner of my eye one day while working at the kitchen sink. When I went out to see what might have happened, I found what remained of the dove after a hawk swooped in for its dinner. I simply placed these on my flatbed scanner to make this image. I've scanned and continue to scan found objects. Not every camera is held in hand."

David Kee
Westmont, Illinois, USA

"I was recently diagnosed with leukemia (the good kind, my oncologist tells me, that won't affect me for a while). Coincidentally, I then read an article about the ancient phrase memento mori ('remember that you will die'). Although I didn't need reminding, I Googled the concept which, in brief, is that thinking about the inevitability of your death forces you to savor each of your days and thus enjoy the time you have left. The search results included an ad for a skull ring that I thought would give me a constant prod to do exactly that. This is my macro shot of my ring that for as many days as I have will reside on my left index finger."

Satyan Devadoss
San Diego, California, USA

"This object is a polyhedron lamp, shown during sunset, that I randomly came across a few months ago. It's now sitting in my office. Remarkably, this polyhedron was the basis of my math Ph.D. dissertation more than 20 years ago. The small wooden block is also the same polyhedron as well, crafted by a student of mine 15 years ago while in Massachusetts. (This student went on to become a drummer for the remarkable band Darlingside, then a carpenter, and finally a photographer.) Pixel 3a."

Peter Van Dyken
Duluth, Minnesota, USA

"The John Boland ore carrier which I sailed on as a deckhand in the 1970s showed up at dusk as a discreet object in the fog in my front yard this past shipping season. Taken with a Fuji X-H1 and the 55–200mm."

Mark Gregg
Michigan, USA

"This small sculpture was a gift from my wife and has become a real keepsake. My whole life has been involved in photography, first as a hobby and then as a vocation, and this little guy reminds me of all the wonderful times I have had in my career. The sculpture is less than six inches in height and made of wire."

Jim Simmons
Masterton, New Zealand

"This is called 'Tomato Figure.' To photograph a misshapen vegetable is to work beneath the immense shadow of Edward Weston. 'Nothing new here.' But I'd like to think I'm expressing the joy that he'd find in colour, not to mention the forms as shaped by the light."

Michael Ryan
Shanghai, China

"I had a nice opportunity to do some personal style photos with my middle daughter last week. Pandora just started learning the cello.

"We originally chose the violin but each school we went to for a trial lesson suggested the cello. I was pleased, as I love and prefer the sound and look of the cello, but after the same thing happened at four different schools, I had to ask why everyone was pointing us to the cello. They told us that it's because she's six. She's too old to start learning the violin—she should've started when she was four! That’s living in China."

Daniel Speyer
New York, New York, USA

"Photo of a canoe I had from age 14 to age 70+ (lost in a fire then). It is a rather uncommon ultralight aluminum canoe (a 13-foot tandem canoe weighing only 44 lbs.). A real 'friend' that I normally paddled solo—with it I had weathered wind and waves and it never let me down. The picture was taken in the Adirondack Park, Whitney Wilderness Area, where I canoe extensively. The photo was taken with a Pentax Q and the 35mm-equivalent (so-called 'toy') lens."

Len Salem
England, United Kingdom

"My seaside bucket.

"I was born in London in February 1939, a few months before the outbreak of a World War which continued for six years. For 24 hours a day, factories produced nothing but munitions and other essentials for the country's war effort. For most, it was a time of great austerity. Knowing no better, I did not feel deprived, but new toys did not exist then and, even on birthdays, I received only hand-me-downs or other second-hand things. Until the end of the war I had never tasted a banana, or any other fruit not grown within our own shores. I had never been on holiday.

"In 1946, the year following the ending of the conflict, my parents took me with them to the seaside for their first holiday for very many years. It was of course my first-ever holiday and at that point probably the biggest event of my life.

"I remember the feeling of great excitement when I became the proud possessor of my very own new bucket and spade. I made endless sandcastles and watched, fascinated, as they afterwards vanished with the incoming tide.

"I remember the spade had an unvarnished wooden shaft and a bright red handle. Maybe I'm imagining the red handle, for it was lost many years ago. But the bucket, a drab grey galvanised steel pail about the size of a small flowerpot, somehow survived.

"I look at it now and see myself as a child at the beginning of his life. It is my oldest possession."

And one more for good measure:

Herman Krieger
Eugene, Oregon, USA

"Bicycles have been part of my life as a schoolboy in Detroit, a student at UC Berkeley, while a resident of Holland, and during my retirement in Oregon. The photo shows me with my recumbent bicycle. For my 95th birthday, I got a pedal assist kit, which I installed on my bicycle. The bicycle played a part in the photo series, 'Along the Riverside Bikepath with a 'Bent and a Box.'"

+  =  +  =  +  =  +

Thanks to Herman and everyone else who participated! Some honorable mentions: Leon Droby, Moose, Tony McLean, Steven Boelaars, Ritchie Thomson, John Russell, Rick Neibel, Randall Teasley, Frank Gorga, Kenneth Dixon, Marshall Smith, and others. To those who submitted pictures of cars: I literally couldn't choose. We'll be doing a Baker's Dozen on the theme of "Cars" someday in the future, so hold those thoughts!

Don't forget I cheated a bit here.

I'm going to spend the weekend writing—see you on Monday!

Mike

Book of Interest:

Hank O'Neal, Ed., A Vision Shared: A Portrait of America 1935–1943 (Steidl, 2019). The reissue of the best overall survey of the work of the FSA photographers of the 1930s. Every public and school library should have a copy, for one thing. Thanks to Andy Moursund for turning me on to this book many years ago. Originally published in 1976 by St. Martin's Press.

The book link above is a portal to Amazon.

Link to B&H Photo

Original contents copyright 2020 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Animesh Ray: "What a beautiful collection of photos, and their stories!"

Mike Ferron: "Congratulations to those who had their photos chosen. Being a fan of B&W I have to say Michael Ryan’s Girl and Cello is maybe my favorite of the 12. The framing, subject and beautiful tonality are for me what a good photo is all about."

Benjamin Marks: "A remarkable set of images! And kudos to you, Mike, for curating a mini-collection in which one couldn't predict the next image from the last one, in terms of type, subject, or style. Surprise is an element of delight, or so I have always thought. My only quibble (and where would the fun be without one?) is that every photograph of a person that isn't a nude against a blank background also has a 'thing' in it. It seems to me that the 'work' of photographing an object as opposed to a person (so brilliantly demonstrated by Stephanie Luke's images above) is in making the inanimate interesting on its own.

"I once tried out (unsuccessfully) for a studio assistant's job in San Francisco. In his remarkably kind rejection of my portfolio, the studio photographer suggested that I work on my composition and take control (or at least responsibility) for what was in the frame. His suggestion was to take a series of still lifes as an exercise. His thesis was that if you could make the mundane interesting with your composition and lighting that you'd be well suited to take advantage with a subject who was doing narrative work in your photo just by being a human with a face and body onto which viewers would project their own emotions, simply because of our social nature. I always appreciated the advice.

"So: quibble over. Your house/your rules etc. As for the underrated task of curation, I wonder whether, in years hence, someone will pay money to find the roses among the thorns of (all) our annual production of photo-desiderata. Can you imagine the gems hidden in Flickr's haystack?"

Mike replies: Your (and Arg's) objections accepted. I will only say that perhaps the relevant difference here is that you both are talking about the idea being foremost, and considering how a picture can best embody the idea; but for me, always, ideas are merely jumping-off points for pictures, and it's the pictures that come first. So for instance if I make a picture of a pair of pliers on a plain background, it's maybe a better illustration of the concept of "object" than a picture of a little boy playing with an old tire; but the point for me is that the little boy playing with the tire is a better, and richer and deeper, picture. (And also, in this case, I care that it relates to Len Salem's story about his seaside bucket—the Yemeni boy might not have toys to play with.)

Consider this triptych, of a bass, not a cello:

These are three pictures of the same bass, and actually the story behind them is very rich and meaningful—it is the Abraham Prescott bass made in Concord, Mass., c. 1825, that belonged to Scott LaFaro, who played with Bill Evans in a "trio of equals" with drummer Paul Motian, on the famous recordings Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby among others. It's the bass heard in those recordings. The bass was partially destroyed in the fiery crash that killed LaFaro at age 25 very near where I live, in the wee hours of July 6th, 1961. It was eventually restored by Samuel Kolstein of Long Island. These three pictures are among Samuel Kolstein's "before" documentation pictures of the restoration.

It could easily be argued that the triptych is a much better example of an "object of affection" than Michael Ryan's picture of Pandora and her cello is of her cello. Pandora's cello itself is neither the sole central object nor the main significance of Michael's picture. But to me it doesn't matter, because the whole idea of "objects of affection" is just to help people facilitate looking through their pictures, perhaps looking at them in a new way, and finding examples that creatively suit the concept. How well or how badly any particular picture suits the concept isn't the point to me, because I don't really care about the concept. It's just facilitation.

But your thoughts are absolutely just as valid, and might just as well lead to an understanding that might help facilitate good pictures and/or improvements in skills as well.

Hope I'm being clear...I'm not arguing with you or Arg. I just come to it with a different attitude.

Comments

[Kenneth Tanaka]

A really wonderful collection of images...and stories! (Herman, you are a stud!)

Thanks to everyone who submitted.

[Thomas Walsh]

Some great photos, but it was a lucky break for Pablo Casals that he was Spanish and not Chinese, since he was 12 when he started Cello lessons.

[Arg]

Thanks for curating this Mike and thanks to the contributors including those who didn’t make the cut. I enjoyed viewing and reading.

However, I don’t like the collection’s name or concept, right from when it was announced. It sure hasn’t worked for me. And, looking at the final dozen, no names no pack drill, the link to ‘affection’ is way beyond just a stretch for some of them.

Cheers

[Dean Johnston]

Hi.

@ David Lee. Sorry to hear that, and wish you the best. You might like to check out the idea of vanitas. I think the Tate has a short bit on it, if I recall. Yep.

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/v/vanitas

It is something I seem to return to. In late autumn, funnily enough. I'm a bit sparse on the skull though.

Take care,
Dean

[Dillan]

This is a truly fascinating collection of photos and narratives! You've hit it out of the park with this article, Mike.

[David Francis]

Some really impressive work here. Looking forward to the next Baker's Dozen.

[Timo]

An inspired choice of inspiring images. Thanks for this.

[Don Spady]

Very neat series. It is amazing how a rather ordinary photograph can come to life with an accompanying story. I think the best example is The Bucket, essentially a mundane photo brought to life with a wonderful story.

[Jim Arthur]

A wonderful collection. At first I was drawn to the found object photos but over time the photos that showed objects in their natural environment rose to the top. As an outdoorsman, I really love Daniel Speyer’s canoe picture. The photo of the canoe parked there on the beach reminds me of times when I found myself looking back over my shoulder at a beloved car or motorcycle that I had just parked.

[Ralf]

Len's story and the picture that comes with it are just wonderful. And humbling. And inspiring. What is my oldest posession? That's probably interesting for everyone to (try to) answer!

[bessi]

Truncated square octahedron. On the Internet there is very little information on it and one wonders: how it is defined? What are its properties? I confess my ignorance; it looks that this craze of truncated oddities started in the Renaissance...

[JoeInCT]

Loved the bucket and the story - all of them actually.