Pictures, a thousand words and images that spark a story

[gunhilltrain]

You obviously have nothing to worry about popularity as you have more stories than followers.
I wonder what rare quality is required for such a rare feat.

My excess number (followers versus stories) is at five right now. You have eleven stories and 260 followers over the course of a year - the latter number is more than twice what I have in over four years.

If you can accomplish that, people must like your stuff which is fine with me. You do seem to enjoy stirring things up on the forum, however, as you did with BobbyBrandt's post. Why not find a photo on your own that you like? So, good-bye and may the Gods be with you.

 

[TxRad]

If you don't like what we say or how we say it, put us all on ignore. It will solve everyone's problem.

 

[Comshaw]

OK, not erotic by any means, but I find the clear, deep-seated, long-lasting love in this to be simply amazing. There’s a phenomenal story in there, with hardship and respect and toil and bliss and victory. I’ve been staring at it almost daily for a long time, but it still escapes me. Some day I will do it justice.View attachment 2197926

Years of toil, triumphs and defeats. A love that started in hot flames, but now is a warm blanket that encompasses them both. A blanket that is equal parts joy, warmth and antidote to the disinterest of the world. She feels the end is close, knows they will be parted soon and does not want it to happen. The inevitable will be and the only comfort is the feel of her lifetime partner held close for what time remains.

Comshaw

 

[gunhilltrain]

I suffer from Tourette syndrome and instead of being patient and empathetic, everyone closes the door on me.

I'll take your word on it, but I thought that Tourette's Syndrome is expressed through vocalizations and body movements. I've never heard of it being evidenced through writing. That's about all I know of it.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Anyway, more pictures. Both of these shots were taken by Bruce Davidson in Brooklyn in the summer of 1959. A different view of Eisenhower's America.

A young couple inside a building (a bathhouse?) in Coney Island.

Coney Island interior

Two couples (plus a third guy, a hanger-on?) in the back of a bus.

Brooklyn bus

Interesting how both men have their arms folded in the same way (unconsciously?) while sitting next to their significant others. The woman in the middle looks uneasy but she still seems to have some hope left. The woman at the left seems to have lost that completely.

 

[gunhilltrain]

The emperor Claudius suffered from this, and he was a gifted writer; Mozart too. People with this syndrome are usually very creative but just can't control their mouth.

I didn't say they couldn't be writers. But you said they couldn't control their mouths, not their pens (or their keyboards). Supposedly only about 10 to 15% use swear words or other inappropriate language.

 

[LizVegas79]

Anyway, more pictures taken by Bruce Davidson in Brooklyn in the summer of 1959. A different view of Eisenhower's America.



Two couples (plus a third guy, a hanger-on?) in the back of a bus.

Brooklyn bus

Interesting how both men have their arms folded in the same way (unconsciously?) while sitting next to their significant others. The woman in the middle looks uneasy but she still seems to have some hope left. The woman at the left seems to have lost that completely.

I feel sorry for the couple on the left but I would like to know what the story is with the couple (and their sleepy friend) on the right. Are they moving west hoping for jobs in California? Is one of them going off into the army and are the other two seeing him off? Did they just rob a bank? WHAT?? Someone could make a whole movie from that single picture I bet!

 

[stickygirl]

I feel sorry for the couple on the left but I would like to know what the story is with the couple (and their sleepy friend) on the right. Are they moving west hoping for jobs in California? Is one of them going off into the army and are the other two seeing him off? Did they just rob a bank? WHAT?? Someone could make a whole movie from that single picture I bet!

I love this photo and how to unravel what's going on?! The guy on the right - overdramatic or drunk. If he's the bf she's pissed- look at her mouth! If the guy with the tattoo is the bf, he'd have pushed the drunk away off his gf. Instead he's pretending he hasn't noticed.
I wonder if the photographer has affected the poses - the black guy doesn't look happy, but maybe it's the camera. The woman next to him look super tired and slumped.

 

[LizVegas79]

I love this photo and how to unravel what's going on?! The guy on the right - overdramatic or drunk. If he's the bf she's pissed- look at her mouth! If the guy with the tattoo is the bf, he'd have pushed the drunk away off his gf. Instead he's pretending he hasn't noticed.
I wonder if the photographer has affected the poses - the black guy doesn't look happy, but maybe it's the camera. The woman next to him look super tired and slumped.

That dichotomy of having his arm around his girl while another guy rests his head on her shoulder is why I thought maybe one of them is going off to the army or that the three of them just robbed a bank.

Maybe the guy with his head on her shoulder is her brother and the other guy is her bf? (which is why he doesn't seem mad)

There's an uneasy naturalness to the photo that's makes me think the photographer didn't affect it at all. But maybe you're right. Maybe he did ask them not to look at him or something.

The black couple look soooo unhappy. I don't think that's posed at all. That part, if nothing else, was probably absolutely real.

Real life can be so sad yet beautiful sometimes, right?

 

[stickygirl]

That dichotomy of having his arm around his girl while another guy rests his head on her shoulder is why I thought maybe one of them is going off to the army or that the three of them just robbed a bank.

Maybe the guy with his head on her shoulder is her brother and the other guy is her bf? (which is why he doesn't seem mad)

There's an uneasy naturalness to the photo that's makes me think the photographer didn't affect it at all. But maybe you're right. Maybe he did ask them not to look at him or something.

The black couple look soooo unhappy. I don't think that's posed at all. That part, if nothing else, was probably absolutely real.

Real life can be so sad yet beautiful sometimes, right?

Apparently it was taken in 1959 by Bruce Davidson, following a gang called the Jokers in Brooklyn. All the same the human dynamic is fascinating.

I found an image, two in fact, on Tumblr of a painting by Artemisia Gentileschi that had been x-rayed. It's called Susanna and the Elders and the original image revealed by science is shocking and prompted me to dig further into the artist's life. Her life became the inspiration - the image itself was the breadcrumb.
Same here - why was the photo taken, what is the background and it's that for me is why it's interesting - it's got a back story.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Wow, what an amazing picture. It has to be staged. The guy in the middle must be a movie actor whose name I forgot. Everyone there looks depressed except the black guy, he just looks unhappy being photographed. He is also the only one who has a job.
The trio on the right is in some weird MFM and the girl looks on with restrained rage. The girl on the left is on the verge of suicide as if life had really been cruel to her. It's interesting that the black guy clings to the girl on his left but makes sure to keep his distance from the white guy... some things will never change with you.

Some details about the settings:

Bruce Davidson

I think the people are "real" enough, in that they were really riding somewhere in that bus. Davidson spent the summer photographing a white "gang," although I suspect they were mostly just a group of kids at loose ends. He may have had the people pose in a certain way; photographers will sometimes do that. But I highly doubt that the guy was an actor hired for the shoot. And, I have no idea if the Black guy had a job, although he's old enough that he might. From other photos, it appears that none of the "gang" had jobs that summer.

People on public transit avoid touching or being pressed against each other; it has nothing to do with race. Of course, sometimes it's so crowded that it's unavoidable. The third guy with his head on her shoulder; I'm not sure what that is all about. He may be one of the "losers," or less popular guys in the group. She doesn't seem to like it but she's not stopping him in any way nor does the boyfriend seem to care. It's like he's not worth worrying about.

People can be in a really bad mood and not be on the verge of suicide.

 

[LizVegas79]

Isn't it funny how we all interpret it slightly differently?

I guess we bring our own experiences and expectations into the things we see around us, huh?

No wonder it's so easy to disagree about things! Understanding where the person making the comment is coming from is more important than understanding (judging?) their comments!

 

[gunhilltrain]

That dichotomy of having his arm around his girl while another guy rests his head on her shoulder is why I thought maybe one of them is going off to the army or that the three of them just robbed a bank.

Maybe the guy with his head on her shoulder is her brother and the other guy is her bf? (which is why he doesn't seem mad)

There's an uneasy naturalness to the photo that's makes me think the photographer didn't affect it at all. But maybe you're right. Maybe he did ask them not to look at him or something.

The black couple look soooo unhappy. I don't think that's posed at all. That part, if nothing else, was probably absolutely real.

Real life can be so sad yet beautiful sometimes, right?

Well, you have to distinguish between what was really happening and what kind of fiction could be generated from the images. Davidson was only twenty-five and met them because he was living in Brooklyn at the time. He may have kept track of them later, but I'd have yet to find any details of that. (He's still alive now at the age of 89.) They must have let him spend several weeks with them.

It's hard to believe that the people he photographed are now in their eighties too, or the ones who have survived are. They probably went on to various kinds of lives including, yes, the military. I was four in 1959, living in another borough of the city, and I do have some memories of that period.

That third guy in the photo is a mystery. Whatever he was doing, he got away with it.

It's usually good form to ask for permission before photographing someone in public. The group of young people already knew he was going to be around taking shots. He probably did have to ask the Black couple for permission. I suspect that some of the negative feelings they were showing weren't faked, but they weren't aimed at the photographer.

 

[yukonnights]

I've never needed to use photos to conjure up a story. When I'm writing there's a movie playing in my imagination — I see my characters — I see the setting — I feel their emotions, etc. Sometimes I need to do some online research about a place, or some other physical detail — but never about the characters or the story arc. Looking at photos of people would do nothing for me.

 

[KeithD]

Brooklyn bus

Interesting how both men have their arms folded in the same way (unconsciously?) while sitting next to their significant others. The woman in the middle looks uneasy but she still seems to have some hope left. The woman at the left seems to have lost that completely.

1959? This is a commentary on integration. The focal point is not the interaction of the men with the women beside them, I don't think, but the stance between a white guy and a black guy under conditions that the three whites probably couldn't find seats anywhere else in the bus and the black couple couldn't sit anywhere but there, in the back of the bus. The two guys have the same "withdrawing into themselves" arms cross because their predicament is the same--having to sit next to each other (note the mutually sought spacing between them). Neither of them can hardly wait until they can get away from the situation. The other three aren't positioned at the volatile point. They may be aware of the situation but are trying to ignore it.

In 1959 I started school late in a Washington, D.C., suburb because the federal government demanded that the school be integrated and Virginia's answer was just not to open the school then.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I feel sorry for the couple on the left but I would like to know what the story is with the couple (and their sleepy friend) on the right. Are they moving west hoping for jobs in California? Is one of them going off into the army and are the other two seeing him off? Did they just rob a bank? WHAT?? Someone could make a whole movie from that single picture I bet!

It reminds me of the last scene in The Graduate, in the same "old look" General Motors bus windows. Of course, Benjamin and Elaine are very different kinds of people from these, and Santa Barbara is not like Brooklyn. But they have the same kind of blank looks as they stare ahead; "now what?"

 

[gunhilltrain]

1959? This is a commentary on integration. The focal point is not the interaction of the men with the women beside them, I don't think, but the stance between a white guy and a black guy under conditions that the three whites probably couldn't find seats anywhere else in the bus and the black couple couldn't sit anywhere but there, in the back of the bus. The two guys have the same "withdrawing into themselves" arms cross because their predicament is the same--having to sit next to each other (note the mutually sought spacing between them). Neither of them can hardly wait until they can get away from the situation. The other three aren't positioned at the volatile point. They may be aware of the situation but are trying to ignore it.

In 1959 I started school late in a Washington, D.C., suburb because the federal government demanded that the school be integrated and Virginia's answer was just not to open the school then.

I think John Kennedy called Washington a Southern city with Northern charm. In any case, I don't think New York ever had segregation on public conveyances. Blacks did not have to sit in the back in any time period. So I don't think it was intended as a comment on integration. Schools in Northern cities were segregated because of de facto housing patterns, not because of legal requirements.

Of course, I don't know what was going through the minds of the people in the photograph or even if they are showing their true feelings. If I had to guess want is going on, or what was intended, I'd say the two men both into their own private dissatisfaction, which is possibly linked to the women they are with.

 

[KeithD]

I think John Kennedy called Washington a Southern city with Northern charm. In any case, I don't think New York ever had segregation on public conveyances. Blacks did not have to sit in the back in any time period. So I don't think it was intended as a comment on integration. Schools in Northern cities were segregated because of de facto housing patterns, not because of legal requirements.

Of course, I don't know what was going through the minds of the people in the photograph or even if they are showing their true feelings. If I had to guess want is going on, or what was intended, I'd say the two men both into their own private dissatisfaction, which is possibly linked to the women they are with.

I'll just have to bet you weren't around in 1959--even in the Bronx.

I guess it's good that most people no longer have the 1959 experience in their experience.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I'll just have to bet you weren't around in 1959--even in the Bronx.

I guess it's good that most people no longer have the 1959 experience in their experience.

I was four-years-old, so I don't remember a lot of details. My neighborhood then was mostly white then but there were always Black kids in my school - probably it was five to ten percent. I started kindergarten in 1960.

New York has a complicated situation. There are so many ethnic and racial groups here that it doesn't seem like one can dominate now, even in a single neighborhood. Harlem was 99% Black forty years ago; now it's maybe one-quarter white. I certainly feel comfortable walking around there which I may not have once. Bushwick and Williamsburg were once entirely Latino (in the blocks that weren't abandoned) and it seems now to be more than half-white. Meanwhile, the North Bronx which was about 80% white in 1980 is now a mixture of people from the West Indies, the Middle East, and just about everywhere else. It's a different city every ten years.

 

[KeithD]

Ummm, OK. The photo was taken in 1959, not now. I can't believe that it was taken to reflect the men's relationship with the women. It was taken in the hot integration era and clearly, to me, is about the two men of different color sitting beside each other where blacks, even in the Bronx at the time, were expected to sit. I am, frankly, shocked at how the reality of that era seems to have become lost to folks posting here. It was 1959. The photographer would be taking photos for a reason--to highlight a topical theme. That would be a reason applicable to 1959.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Ummm, OK. The photo was taken in 1959, not now. I can't believe that it was taken to reflect the men's relationship with the women. It was taken in the hot integration era and clearly, to me, is about the two men of different color sitting beside each other where blacks, even in the Bronx at the time, were expected to sit. I am, frankly, shocked at how the reality of that era seems to have become lost to folks posting here. It was 1959. The photographer would be taking photos for a reason--to highlight a topical theme. That would be a reason applicable to 1959.

Keith, I have no idea of what those two guys were thinking. I started riding New York buses in 1969, ten years later, and I don't remember Blacks being expected to sit in a particular place or being expected not to sit next to someone of a different race. Unfortunately, all of my relatives who were alive in '59 have passed by now, or I would specifically ask them what they remembered from earlier eras.

 

[NotWise]

This photo (downsized here) inspired a Halloween story that I haven't written yet.

View attachment 2198363

At a first glance it looks like a hand-colored antique. I'm not sure it is. There are cracks in the photo, but the image is continuous over the cracks. I don't know if that's possible unless it's been Photoshopped, either to repair damage, or to make a newer image appear antique.

The story idea assumed the photo is antique, and the woman was a Geisha, possibly of the Meiji period when Geishas were courtesans for the wealthy merchant class.

 

[ElectricBlue]

This photo (downsized here) inspired a Halloween story that I haven't written yet.

View attachment 2198363

At a first glance it looks like a hand-colored antique. I'm not sure it is. There are cracks in the photo, but the image is continuous over the cracks. I don't know if that's possible unless it's been Photoshopped, either to repair damage, or to make a newer image appear antique.

The story idea assumed the photo is antique, and the woman was a Geisha, possibly of the Meiji period when Geishas were courtesans for the wealthy merchant class.

Great pic, but I'd say it's contemporary, judging by the hand on the hip - that's a "today" pose, definitely not nineteenth or twentieth century (first half, at least). Looks like Photoshop craqueler, something like that, has been added as a layer, to fake the background.

 

[NotWise]

Her posture is contrapposto. I don' t know enough to say what postures might be typical of Japanese women at different times, but I do have a collection of antique photos that includes women from the 1920's through the 1940's with one or both hands on their hips. I'm pretty sure I remember an Edwardian photo with a woman in contrapposto with a hand on her hip, but it isn't in my collection.

 

[TadOverdon]

https://64.media.tumblr.com/df5e0273b6a6ece7f9fb3fcc3ae41e08/315e79c9d79cc24c-ff/s540x810/c0906db6ae43769bb5d89193a0f719412f99bf74.jpg

I'm thinking that she's listening to whatever the woman in red is saying into her ear.