Yesterday's Problems

I hope I’m not being obsessive, but I want to say a few more words about changing fashions. Here’s me in the elevator yesterday. 

The only color is the blue in that Hong Kong face mask. I guess you could say I dress in the style of that big fashion change that came just before heavy tattooing, piercing, and bright customs. That change, about 25 years ago, was when hipsters abandoned suits and ties and dresses and went super casual. How casual was that? They looked as if they’d slept in their clothes. 

I embraced that look. At one point I was looking so disheveled that when I went into a barbershop in New York's Chinatown they refused to cut my hair and asked me to leave. They were right, my Asian neighbors. I had started to look like a bum. And speaking of change, they don’t use the term "bum" anymore, do they? Now they are referred to as homeless ladies or gentlemen.

When I do street photography, I don't want to call attention to myself, so colorless is good. My goal is to be invisible. I see myself as The Shadow, able to cloud men’s minds so they cannot see me. (How many of you remember that old radio show where for a time a young Orson Wells played The Shadow, Lamont Cranston, wealthy young man about town?) The street images I capture are street for editorial stock—not fine art photography or live news. 

Seville

When I went to work for American Airlines in the 1980s, I had to buy three suits. AA was a conservative company where male employees were required to wear a suit and tie. Slacks and a sports jacket were fine for dressing up when I was freelancing, but they were not permitted at American’s headquarters. The thing I found most odd about that was when men came into the office they would remove and hang up the jacket and they didn’t put it on again until they left the building at the end of the day.

Speaking of sleeping in your clothes, or looking like you do, I don’t. In fact, I bought myself some stylish sleepwear at the John Lewis winter clearance sale. At night now, I look like I’m about to attend a Sunday brunch or a slumber party at some chic villa on the southern California coast.  

Remember when there were lots of people in the streets and parks having fun, getting close? 

San Miguel de Allende

Rome

Galway