A Little Huntin' and a Little Gatherin'

For this post we went to our local everything antique store and each bought two pictures, at least that was the plan, we actually came away with a little more than two pictures apiece. We each bought an old picture that we liked for ourselves, and then chose one that we thought the other person would like.

 Here are the pictures, the first is the one we bought for ourselves the second is the one we bought for the other person. 

*click the pictures to see them bigger*

 (The first picture is the one I bought for myself, and the second is the one that I bought for Keela)

I have always loved the pictures that are not outright funny, the subtly hilarious pictures that occur when the photographer is sincerely trying to capture a serious moment, but that turn out looking somehow off. Maybe its the fact that I am looking at these pictures 60 years after they were taken, or maybe it's the disjoint between the girl's face and the boy's, the placement of the flowering bushes, or the in-progress hand wipe, which I myself have been photographed doing.
I have another picture of a little boy right before his first communion,
the back of the photo says Billie Prock, when I returned to the store where I bought Billie's communion portrait I found another communion photo,
this one said Frank Prock on the back.

HA. 

Keela on the other hand likes those pictures that are obviously humorous,
this was one of the first pictures I saw while looking for one for her.
It fits. 

This is what Keela thinks of the picture I chose for her:

First of all, they should be called photographs.  The word 'picture' just doesn't cut it in this instance.  Leave the term 'picture' for the snapshot you take of yourself and your BFFL over the weekend, with half your face chopped off, because you held the camera too far to one side.  

That is a picture.  

A photograph is something much more.

How cute is this guy? SO cute. With his checkered flannel, zippered shirt, and converse-esque sneakers, this guy has it all: he is on top of the world. A slight smirk and the hand on the hip defines the humor of this picture.  Not to mention the mysterious barrel that sits on the fire next to him.  

Pictures like this one evoke the best questions, but leave us with no answers. That's why I love them.  What's life without a little mystery?  

I could guess that his brother took this photograph on a Saturday afternoon in the woods behind their house.  I could guess that he's had his zippered shirt since his days in college, or that he his a renowned banjo player.  

Who knows? This could all very well be true. Or not. 

Regardless, his kicks are pretty sweet.

(The first photograph is the one I picked for myself, the second is the one I bought for Lily)

Photograph #1: I absolutely ADORE this. There isn't an explanation for why I love this photograph, I just DO. Okay? 

Here's what happened:  I was sifting through a pile of photographs, and I found this one. I immediately put it in my "buy" pile.  

Done done and done.  

It was immediate love. While I consumed my potato pancakes with extra applesauce, I re-visited this photograph.  

It is magical. I can just smell the cotton candy machines and the kettle corn.  I love the line of spectators watching the bumper cars  in the background and the shadows of the spectators on the concrete floor. 

I just want to jump into this photograph.

 Into this time period. 

Into summer.

Photograph #2: I found this photograph on a table amidst the clutter of the basement at H&G. The simplicity of this photograph IS Lily. The beer, the hat, the posture, the roof, the sky...she was bound to love it.  

Her spin on it:

I will marry this man, he is so cool. I wish I was a surfer who lived near the beach in a house with a thousand windows, and drank beer on the roof, or the beach, or on a surfboard in the middle of the ocean. I wish this man was the only person I saw for days. He has lots of friends, but not too many, he works hard, hence the ladder and boots, but prefers to relax. Our house will have a striped roof, and we will have matching sunglasses.

And in response to Keela's picture/photo comment; for such a photo lover you take an awful lot of pictures.  

In response to Lily's response: Yes I do. That was exactly my point, people don't take PHOTOGRAPHS anymore, they take pictures. Times have changed, and pictures have become a forced digitalized photograph. The aesthetic of a photograph speaks differently than a digital picture. But who is at fault here? Nobody. Times change, and with it, the way we record our memories.

Both of us.