Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Picture from an exhibition

We sat in the heat at the side of the dirt road leaning back against the grassy bank with Louis our dog at our feet. We were, at least, in the shade. To our right the road stretched away up a hill for a quarter of a mile. My subject, a young man and his girl friend from Beacon, had lost their way and we sat at the junction of the road where they would have to turn to reach the barn that was my studio for a weekend. A car approached and I wave. It draws up and it is not them.

A man lowers the driver's window.


"You want a lift?"


"No thanks, we are waiting for my subjects. I am going to photograph them in the barn over there."


"You're a photographer?

"Yes."

"There were some
really great portraits at an exhibition at the Garrison Art Center last week. I was there.""They were his," said Caroline, leaning towards me.

"Really?"


"Yes." I said.

There we were, sitting in the dust like a couple of exhausted hitchhikers, wondering how we were going to pay the rent and feed the dog when a stranger tells us how much he liked the photographs he saw at an exhibition that barely sold a single print.

1 comment:

  1. Nice anecdote though sadly telling of how while many today enjoy Fine Art, they're still unwilling (or in this economy, unable) to support it. Curious to know why you selected this photo from the show. Were one or both of these dandies reminiscent of the driver?

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