Thursday, April 7, 2011

As I said...

... Vegas is fading.

I read an interesting quote this morning on Blake Andrews' blog:

"I’m very sparing with photographing people. Once you insert a person into the work, he or she becomes the protagonist."
John Gossage







When I returned home from the Best Little Hell on Earth, I told DW about the fellow in the blue shirt and white shorts. He was standing in close proximity to the woman in the visor for a reason. She was hawking and he was gawking and talking. He was out to impress her with his drunken wit, or that was the impression I had as I approached. He was loud and incessant, calling out to passers by, perhaps thinking he was helping the woman garner clients for the casino she was working for (O'Shea's?).

He saw me coming with my camera, but not before I clicked, and as I passed, he called out to me, "Hey, pedophile! Child molester!"

DW was incredulous. "What did you do?"

"I kept walking. He was drunk."

"You didn't say anything? I would have told him off."

"For a brief moment I wanted to turn around and clock him."

"No, no, no. Then you would have ended up in jail."

"Like I said, he was drunk. It wasn't worth it."

Just words. But still, when I went back o my room, I looked in the full length mirror. What was it that made me look like a perv? My hat? My paunch? My shoes? The whole package, including my camera?

More likely, a memory. Poor guy.

The world is a full-length mirror. Whether we like it or not. But what we do in front of that mirror is equally a reflection. Call it the pocket mirror, if you will, a compact we carry with us.

I've heard that if you ask a person if you can take their picture, more often than not they'll consent. I wonder what would have happened had I asked that fellow. But that's not my way. Maybe I should get over myself but I don't feel completely comfortable around people. If you've met me, you can tell. I'm a nice enough guy, but there are little hints. For the same reason, I shoot my street photos from the hip.  Consequently, I have begun to rely on the artifice of Photoshop to tell a story, for better or worse, like the passing moment that it is.

5 comments:

NT said...

I really like these blur-pics. (blurps?)

bastinptc said...

Thx, Sis.

FG, at my age, I'd rather not find out.

Anonymous said...

An utterance is made primarily because it can be made. Not because it is a response to anything.

By seeking any sign of truth or validity to the response you weakened your position. The correct response can be as lazy as yo momma and as complex as "The Apology of Socrates."

Had he yelled out what's up mudderphakker would you have stared in the mirror for signs of incestous messages?

It is the real concern that men are under siege as predatory until proven dead that may be leading you to such weakening search for inaccurate indications of prevarication.

as always

aki

Wolynski said...

Vegas is fading, but so is everything else. We have empty "luxury" high rises, but the entire country is swamped with over-valued vacant McMansions. Same short-sighted greed everywhere.

TenMile said...

Don't care for the photo's, Hoss. But then my taste's run to single focused objects and the beans with all else - blurring being distractions, half seen as they are.

SKI: The revolution was "we can if we try;" the civil War was "that cannot be allowed (the sundering of the United States);" the civil rights was "that should not be;" and the "McMansions" are stupid as you tell.

But they were ALL short sighted. However much attempts.