The Boat Lullabies: August 2007 Archives

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August 29, 2007

Serve & Volley

Posted by nick at 02:06 AM | Comments (2)

August 27, 2007

Smoke Break

Sorry for the absence- I've just been busy with other stuff. I do plan doing one more installment of the Day at the Market series but that'll probably have to wait till the end of the week. Right now I've got more pressing concerns- my landlord needs to get into my apartment tomorrow for some minor repairs and I don't want her to think I'm one of the Collyer Brothers so I've got some cleaning to do!

Posted by nick at 01:29 PM | Comments (2)

August 14, 2007

More from the Market

Before today's post I thought I'd mention that Yahoo ran a very nice profile of me (and Square America of course) on Friday (Thanks Trystan!). If you haven't seen it go here and take a look.
Now here are some of the other photos I picked up on Sunday.
First is something fairly common- a photo postcard of two women sitting on a paper moon. This was near the top of the first box I looked in which got me a little excited- not because I liked the photo all that much- it's a pretty standard paper moon photo (though I do like that one of the women is holding the moon's nose) but because it meant that most likely no other photo dealers had been through the box before me. Lots of people collect paper moon photos which mean they're pretty easy to sell so most photo dealers will buy them when they're cheap. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything spectacular in the box and it was a pretty big box- probably about 1500 photos- which took me about a 1/2 hour to go through.

Most of the rest of the box was military stuff from WWII and Korea. Now I have tons of WWII stuff and will probably do a show of them eventually but these were pretty ordinary. I did get a couple of things I could use. This first photo I actually like a lot. The back reads "Open air Bioscope at the camp. Mid East March 1945." First, I love that kind of makeshift vernacular architecture and the desert location, the single figure, and the little pile of stones add a surreal quality to the photo. I also like that the guy refers to it as a bioscope which were travelling outdoor movie shows that set up at carnivals and fairs mostly in the early part of the century. I'm guessing that had to be a fairly anachronistic term in 1945 but I could be wrong.

I also collect photos that have the word "me" written on them (another upcoming show) so I got this one- the arrow is a plus as I collect them too (see some of posts here from earlier this month). It also has a nice inscription on the back which reads in part "The fella took this picture while I didn't even know about it. This is when we went on the beer party on the beach. Notice its nothing but rock and all the sites are the same way. Do I look like I've put on any weight?" A quick note on inscriptions- I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate inscriptions onto the site as some of them can really add so much to the photo. If only one or two photos in a given show have interesting inscriptions (as is usually the case) it doesn't make sense to me to break up the visual flow either by adding the text below the photo or adding a second scan of the back. I've thought that maybe I'd have some kind of symbol that let you know you could click on a certain photo to show the inscription on the back and while I'm certainly much to lazy to go back and do it retroactively for older shows I am considering it for future shows.

There were a few non-military photos mixed in as well. This one might make it into Season's Greetings, my show of photo Christmas cards. It's not a spectacular image but I do like how unchristmasy it is (of course they could be Jewish).

Here's another Christmas photo I pulled from a different box. I'm a sucker for blurry photos (more on that tomorrow) and here the blur gives both of the women slightly crazed looks. I might possible add it to my Holiday Grab Bag though I'm not sure- that show already has so many photos and I'm not sure what this would add to it. Once some shows (like that one) get to a certain size they unfortunately tend to descend into simple kitsch- there are some great photos in that show but they get drowned out by too many ordinary ones- I like the ladies slightly manic look but it's like a throw-away one-liner. Sometimes you need some of those just to keep a show moving along but use too many of them and you wind up sounding like a bad Borscht Belt comedian.

Here's another one-liner- An old woman walking down the street with an unfortunate expression on her face (on the back she writes "I don't believe I really look quite so doleful."). This one I will add to On the Street at some point. None of the photos in that show- all taken by intinerant street photographers- are spectacular but taken together they form a great record of street life in the 1930s-50s. Interestingly, almost everyone in those pictures looks somewhat doleful- it's rare to see anyone smiling in those photos unless they are walking with someone else.

Like a lot of my collection the next few photos are interesting to me but are very unlikely to ever make onto Square America. The first is of a storefront museum at Ocean Beach, San Francisco. I wish the whole banner on the right was visible.

This pair of photos is of a pretty cool vehicle- it looks like someone tricked out an old Ford with a kind of half track in the rear and ski runners in the front. Neither is particluarly interesting photograpically and neither gives a really good view of the car but it's the kind of thing I'll still buy even if I'll never use it.

The same thing goes for this next photo- It's interesting to me historically more than photographically. I like having this kind of thing in my collection; while I'd describe myself as a more of a collector than an archivist there is a part of me that wants to save everything and wants the collection to be a complete record of the world in miniature rather than an expression of the peculiarities of my taste in photographs. I'm not sure if I've been able to strike the right balance between the two or if a balance is even really possible. The site is certainly tipped towards the latter but sometimes not enough I think- it's really neither fish nor fowl but I guess the collection really isn't either so maybe that's appropriate.

I got this photo thinking I might use it in my Family Dynamics show. I love the bored daughter and barely visible mother. I also like that there are two other kids back there whose feet are the only thing that's visible. Unfortunately, the focus is a little soft on all of the people so I'm not sure I'll be able to use it.

The next photo I Iike but not enough to use it on the site. It's actually from a series of portraits taken at a wedding- in that context, a series of photos of the bride, groom, and bridal party- this photo of a guy who looks like he just came home from work really stood out. Unfortunately, I didn't buy any of the other photos and now this one, stripped of it's context, has lost much of its impact. Even if I had bought the other photos I probably wouldn't have used it on Square America- the pay-off, the uncomfortable working man out of place at the wedding, isn't enough to justify putting it on the site. That said, if some of those wedding photos are still there the next time I see that dealer I'll probably pick them up.

This last photo is, along with the last two photos I posted yesterday, my favorite buy of the day. Like those photos I'm not really sure where I'll put it- maybe I'll add it to The Road eventually- I've got a bunch of other photos to add to that show as well.

Posted by nick at 02:32 PM | Comments (2)

August 13, 2007

A Day At The Market

As I occassionally get asked how I've gone about building my collection- where I find them, how much I pay etc...- I thought I'd take the next few days to break down a typical day at the market for me. Yesterday was actually a pretty good day- not great- but definitely better than average, particularly this summer which for whatever reason has been pretty slow for me. Sunday I actually went to three different markets- the first was a flea market with a mix of new and used goods, the other two were both antiques markets. The flea market is just north of Chicago, near O Hare airport. I got there just after 6 a.m. (dealers start setting up at 4:30 am and while technically the market doesn't officially open until 6 I know people who get there before 5 a.m. - I'm not quite that hardcore. Anyway I got nothing at that market- it rained late Saturday night and between that and forcasted temperatures in the 90s not many dealers showed up. From there I headed to an antiques market in Wisconsin about 80 miles north of Chicago- arriving just after 8 a.m. where I did pretty well. Finally, I went to one more market on my way back to town- as I didn't get to that market until about 11:30 what photos were there had been pretty picked over but I did manage to get a few things. All together I spent about 50 dollars (not counting gas which probably set me back another twenty dollars). Today I'll post the stuff I got that I'm pretty sure will make onto Square America eventually. Tomorrow I'll post the maybes, and Wednesday I'll post the photos which I have no idea why I bought and will never see the light of day (of which there always seem to be plenty).

The first photo I'll show was the most expensive one of the day- it cost me $3.00- and was my last purchase of the day. It was on an album page with 4 other photos on it none of which I wanted but the dealer didn't want me to just pull the one photo which was understandable. I basically got it because I've been wanting to add another page to my Defaced show and it certainly fits. It was also at the last market I went to and I wanted to get something there that I could use on the site so I didn't feel like I totally wasted my time going there. This is a pretty bad habit of mine- I hate to walk away from a market empty handed so I often wind up buying something that I'll never use wasting money that I really don't have. That said, I've certainly spent three dollars on worse photos.

The second photo also will probably wind up in Defaced as well. This was actually one of the first photos I bought and was part of a pile of about 10 photos I got for $4.00.

Just a quick aside on my attitude towards bargaining- if I'm only paying .50 cents or less for photos I never haggle- I know people who would haggle on something that cost a dime just on the principle that your supposed to haggle at a flea market and that's part of the fun of shopping. Generally speaking those people are assholes (in my opinion anyway). None of the dealers I know are getting rich and I know plenty of dealers who've gotten so sick of people beating them up on prices that they've gotten out of the business. Before I hand a stack of photos to a dealer I figure out what I think is a fair price for the photos and if their price is at or below that price I never haggle.

This next photo cost me .50 cents and will eventually wind up in The Book of Sleep

The next two sets of photos both came from the same dealer- as I was going through the box I asked him how much the photos were and he said a buck each- I pulled out twenty photos- now normally this is a case where I might ask if he'd take a little less- often when you're buying a bunch of photos dealers will offer a bit of a break but in this case he didn't offer any discount and given what I was getting I didn't ask. First was a little stack of 5 post-mortems (and one funeral photo). While I don't go looking for this kind of thing I do have quite a few in my collection now and eventually do a show of them. None of these is extraordinary but a buck each I couldn't pass them up. Here are a few.

This next set is a little dark as well. I don't see vintage photos of handicapped people (especially mentally handicapped) too often- they are actually much rarer than post mortems. I'm not sure where I'll put this set of photos- which date from around 1920- but again at a buck each I couldn't pass them up.

I think this next one, another 50 cent-er, will wind up in The Portrait Gallery though it might wind up in What The Camera Saw (which is incidently the show I'd most like to throw out and start over from scratch with The Painted World coming in a close second- both shows need some serious reorganization.

Now the last two photos are my favorite finds of the day though I'm not sure where I'll put either of them. I got both of them from the same folks- a husband and wife. They often have interesting stuff, the problem is priced and while the wife's prices are always pretty reasonable the husband always gives me outrageous prices- generally three times what his wife would charge- and is pretty surly which means I always have to wait around until the husband is dealing with somebody else and then get the wife to give me prices. I got 12 photos from them for $18 which is a bit more than most people charge for photos around here but is still pretty reasonable. The first is a real photo postcard and I'd guess it dates from the late teens when the debate over prohibition was in full swing. If you can't read it the text on top reads "NOBODY KNOWS HOW DRY I AIN'T" and on one post is written "Beer" and "2 for 5 cents each" is written on the other.

I love this last photo in spite of the faded color though again I'm not sure where I'll put it.

Tomorrow I'll post a few more good ones and some near misses.

Posted by nick at 01:08 AM | Comments (3)

August 12, 2007

When The World Was Round

Posted by nick at 12:40 AM | Comments (1)

August 11, 2007

Then

Posted by nick at 12:53 AM | Comments (1)

August 10, 2007

Tomorrow is Home Movie Day!!

Hey everybody- In case you don't know tomorrow 8/11 is Home Movie Day. What's that you ask? Only the best day of the whole year! In dozens of locations around the country and across the globe folks like you are invited to bring your old 8 & 16mm home movies to be inspected and then screened- go to homemovieday.com to find a location near you. I'll be at the Chicago Cultural Center hopefully screening my 1970s Super 8 Playboy Bunny charity basketball game film- See you there!!