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[SI] My Pinhole pictures
I thought I'd provide a bit of context for my Shoot-In submissions this month.
My ongoing assignment to photograph points of interest in the city for which I work (Cambridge, Massachusetts) leaves me little time for photography that isn't work-related. However, the assignment itself, which takes me to dozens of locations I've never seen before, is the virtual equivalent of a collection of pinholes in a map of Cambridge. So I've submitted three of the pictures I've taken so far, hoping that this fulfills the spirit, if not exactly the letter, of the mandate. Pinhole Bob_Coe 1: This is Cambridge's Old Burial Ground, which we think is more authentic than its equivalents in Boston, because its graves have been disturbed less over time. In the U.S., at least, humor isn't something you necessarily expect on early 19th-century gravestones, but look closely at the middle stone. Its tympanum features a traditional "urn & willow" motif, but here the urn is a grinning face with the willow as its hair. The grave's occupant, William Kneeland, was once a tutor at Harvard College, a job he apparently lost to anti-nepotism rules when he married Elizabeth Holyoke, the daughter of the college's president. Her stone is to the viewer's right; the stone on the left is that of their daughter, also named Elizabeth. Note that the main inscription on Mr Kneeland's stone is in Latin; college tutors were presumably expected to be Latin scholars. Pinhole Bob_Coe 2: Cambridge's skylines, and several of its most interesting buildings, are best seen from the Charles River; and so far I've walked the footpaths on one or both sides of the river from Lechmere Square to the Eliot Bridge. This is Harvard University's Weld Boathouse. It sits beside the Larz Anderson Bridge (a name questioned by Wikipedia but used by all), which connects Harvard's main campus in Cambridge with its Business School and athletic complex in Brighton. I like the picture because I think it expresses the traditional seedy elegance of an Ivy League university (I attended one myself) pretty well. I'm tempted to call the scene European (French or Belgian perhaps?), although my one brief visit to Europe hardly provides enough support for that leap. Pinhole Bob_Coe 3: Farther upriver, near the Eliot Bridge, is Mount Auburn Hospital. The real reason I include this picture is that fourteen years ago the doctors and nurses at Mount Auburn saved my life. The building fronts on Mount Auburn Street, a major thoroughfare, but is best seen from the river. (Another major thoroughfare, Memorial Drive, separates the building from the river, but you might not notice it from this angle except at rush hour.) The reverse is also true: for several days of my stay I had a room overlooking the river, and the view was spectacular, especially at night. As you might imagine, these pictures are the tip of a growing iceberg, and it may well be that others will appear in future Shoot-Ins. Indeed, I've already set aside one or two to use for mandates that I plan to propose. ;^) Bob |
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[SI] My Pinhole pictures
On Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:04:01 -0400, Robert Coe wrote:
I thought I'd provide a bit of context for my Shoot-In submissions this month. I'm snipping here, but that's because I'm tired to having to scroll through long posts to get to replies. I love it when photographs tell a story or have a story behind them. Ideally, the photograph itself should contain all or part of the story, but sometimes that's not possible. Short of a balloon and arrow to "Bob's room" at the hospital, it just can't be done sometimes. I enjoyed the gravestone stories. My one complaint about that image was that I couldn't find a hint of the story in what was shown, but I knew one was there. -- Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida |
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[SI] My Pinhole pictures
On Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:09:20 -0400, tony cooper
wrote: : I enjoyed the gravestone stories. My one complaint about that image : was that I couldn't find a hint of the story in what was shown, but I : knew one was there. Yeah, I had to use Google to fill in the blanks. Then I had to try to figure out which of the blatantly contradictory assertions I found were right and which were wrong. More on this yarn: I of course realized that the stones were hard to read, so I went back a few days ago and tried to remedy that by photographing them again face-on. But the light was too flat, and the new pictures came out generally worse than the original. But in culling those pictures this morning, I discovered that the "urn & willow" motif on Kneeland's *wife's* stone (which I knew about) also represents a face, which I didn't know. The representation is radically different from the one on Kneeland's stone, but I don't think there's any doubt that it's there. Another visit is obviously required. Bob |
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[SI] My Pinhole pictures
On Tue, 20 Jul 2010 21:12:00 -0400, Robert Coe wrote:
On Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:09:20 -0400, tony cooper wrote: : I enjoyed the gravestone stories. My one complaint about that image : was that I couldn't find a hint of the story in what was shown, but I : knew one was there. Yeah, I had to use Google to fill in the blanks. Then I had to try to figure out which of the blatantly contradictory assertions I found were right and which were wrong. More on this yarn: I of course realized that the stones were hard to read, so I went back a few days ago and tried to remedy that by photographing them again face-on. But the light was too flat, and the new pictures came out generally worse than the original. But in culling those pictures this morning, I discovered that the "urn & willow" motif on Kneeland's *wife's* stone (which I knew about) also represents a face, which I didn't know. The representation is radically different from the one on Kneeland's stone, but I don't think there's any doubt that it's there. Another visit is obviously required. I know I get hung up on things like this. If there's history, I want to know it. In another post, SavageDuck linked to a photo of an old motorcycle. Evidently a racing bike with that number badge on the front fender. I want to know what make and when it was made. -- Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida |
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