A few years ago, Joel and I stopped in at an estate sale in Kansas City. There was a large box of slides, an old “one at a time” projector, and this book of contact sheets that we picked up for $25. This was where our obsession with other people’s pictures began. Not just photographing people (as that had been long underway) but staring at ones others had taken. Not by artists, professionals, or anyone remotely famous; just people with a camera documenting their life. I’m amazed like a 3-year-old by the mystery behind them and how much you really can gather from an image, without the verbal background story.

When we moved out to Oregon, there were (thankfully!) only so many things we could take with us; you should’ve seen how much stuff we gave away. (I actually think most of our own wedding pics are still in a box in a friend’s attic!) But not this. As although our own history is important, we have the drive to narrate and read other stories. (Super Hero pics aside. ;-))

The only date I could find on here was from 1959; 50 years ago. Makes me wonder-50 years from now, what will the photographs made today say? Humbling to think about on this rainy Friday afternoon. (I gave some of the images have narrative tags if you just let the cursor rest on them.)