Night time was the hardest to shoot, but probably the most interesting time to explore this (or most any other) city. Self-portraits occur from time to time, demanded by my girlfriend — herself a photographer — back in LA. My experience in Boston contrasted starkly with, say, New York, in that people on the street (police included) were very friendly and often struck up conversation.
In late summer or thereabouts, I was sent to Boston (Cambridge, actually) by my employer (GAO; I will probably have to explain GAO one of these times because most people either don’t know or don’t understand the outfit).
For a few weeks, I was part of a special crash course on systems analysis at Harvard aimed at government managers. Along with around twenty other students from all over the country, I got a lot of computer theory, a big dose of statistics (one of my favorite courses in college!), a little programming (but remember in those days, it was mainframe stuff; we didn’t have personal computers) and a lot of working through real-world case studies and problems.
By mid-afternoon each day I was out of the classroom so my camera and I hit the streets and public transit, mostly walking miles every day. Of course, I explored the Harvard campus as well. I didn’t socialize very much with my classmates outside, except to run across some of them in bars or restaurants or on self-guided history trails, as I seemed to have more in common with the people I met in the wild. I also tried to photograph my hotel room, which, except for TV and bathroom and the like, was done in replica or faux 18th and early 19th-century furnishings. It appears that my b&w negative archives contain at least 25 rolls’ worth of exposures, of which I have taken a look now at perhaps 10 percent of the lot. Here are some — previously rejected or ignored — of the snapshots from this first new dive into the material.
Pointing & shooting my way home after a late afternoon/early evening visit to Janet at 103 …
Tonight’s edition of The Observer shows this (see left) as its front page.
The (almost) entire article: Weather Hazards _ La Grande Observer _ Union and Wallowa Counties’ News Leader
Click here for the photo only in the print edition: Charlie-Observer_2015-12-09-0001
In late summer of 1972, I stopped over in Davenport, Iowa on my way to an extended business stay in Boston and Washington, DC. Here we see my brother and his family and our interactions with his 1969 VW bug and his 1972 VW camper.
Not one to forget my Iowa farm roots …
Rain and wind. Lightning and thunder. We get a late start, so it is completely dark. Only a fool would go out with a camera … or even a dog …
Lit only* by candles and fireplace in a warm cabin, live sing-alongs and poetry readings with Pete, Kay and Lynne were just about the best way to pass the night time as the wind howled outside. I met these Tucson Troubadours when we literally bumped into each other on the ski slopes; we soon became good friends for the next several months.
(*To tell the truth, sometimes the room lights had to be turned on to better enable photography …)
Mostly around December 1972 …
Previous (don’t expect anything to be strictly chronological):
Introduction
Part One
