Snapshots

Accidental Mysteries and Confluence City both posted old photos today, and this set me to looking at some of my old pics from photography class at the University- so I dug some out and scanned them. I would never claim to be a great photographer, but I thought I’d share a few. There are some really great photographers in our great city of St. Louis- I enjoy Ken Konchel, Bob Reuter recently shot some awesome pics of my friend Leslie Sanazaro, and I recently purchased a piece from Missy Sue Hanson.
Sorry about the crappy scan job- the originals look better. I was shooting with a manual Canon AE-1 back in 1995, which I still have, and developing/printing them in the cramped darkroom with all the other students- Old School! My professor actually said I had decent technical ability, and I was somewhat prolific, though he thought they were a bit sentimental. I couldn’t help that much, due to the nature of the subject matter: I was teaching preschool to make ends meet while I studied art education, and so these children seemed like an obvious choice. He gave me a "B". Of course I quit school and ran off to St. Louis to be a famous artist and musician  :D

While some of them seem staged, the truth is that my kids became so accustomed to my ever-present camera that they soon forgot I was shooting rolls of film of them almost continually. There were the token movie stars/comedians/actors who would ham it up for the lens though, that is true. Looking back I now see I was not only documenting their day-to-day, but also my own development as a young man and artist. I learned a great deal from these little people- watching them draw really loosened my creativity, and watching them live taught me to care about someone more than I cared about myself. So yeah, they  sentimental.