Riding in a bus on a country road. The guide wants to buy some mangos, so we stop where he sees a tree. I see a family playing in the yard of a country house, grab my camera, and walk over to see.
I don't remember if we got mangos or not.
When I look at this picture, though, all I see are that the kids are posing like they are having a family portrait made. They are smiling, whatever. If only I had made them stand straight and stoic, not with smiles but with serious faces or, maybe, with just that hint of a smile.
But I was a gringo interloper jumping off a bus. What can you do?
Ili helped me throw things away yesterday. Lots of things. Maybe one hundred and fifty pounds of clothing? Shoes. Belts (was I ever that thin?). Old sports coats. Ties.
In the kitchen, everything came out of the cabinets. Half as much went back in.
Then into the study where camera gear was strewn all about. Everything now is off the floor. Boxes that held cameras and lenses are thrown away. You can walk in there now.
The house feels lighter, airier.
Then she hung some photos.
Later, when that was done, I started working on images to take to a Santa Fe workshop. I went through my NYC pictures from five years ago. Jesus--I was knocked out. I used to be pretty good. Ili says she wants me to go out on my own in NYC and take pictures again. She recognizes that I can't do that with her around.
There are so many pictures. They are strange things, oddly framed, surprising. I will post some here when I get back from Santa Fe.
And then there are all the old studio pictures. Jesus.
I am not very good at organizing things. I am bad at it. I am horrible, really. I have millions of files of photographs. I can't find anything easily. Sometimes not at all. Now I am suffering for it. I have a degree in zoology, for Christ's sake. I should know something about systematizing. Phylum, family, order, genus, species. . . all that.
I must go work at it now.
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