I made this image in 1988 on a 4×5 view camera while I was in college studying photography. I was initially drawn to the row of greek columns in front of the Masonic Temple and the park bench in the foreground framed by the autumn leaves. As I was getting set up this old gentleman stopped and asked me if I had a lighter for his cigarette. I didn’t have a lighter but I ran to my car and found a book of matches that I told him he could keep. He thanked me and went over and sat on the park bench right in front of my camera. I hadn’t planned on having a figure in the scene but I immediately knew that this was a much better image. I went up and explained to the man that I was making a photograph and asked if he minded if he was in it. He said know and I made this image.
Later, my father would help me make a 16×20 fiber print in the dark room using a cold light enlarger. To this day this image remains one of my top 10 all time images. I made this great image early in my career and followed it up with decades of terrible images. I have spent much of the last 30 years figuring out what I did right on that one day. I think I learned to trust my instinct and I learned that people make places vastly more interesting.
Camera: 1987 Calumet Cambo Monorail View Camera with 210mm Schneider lens
October, 1988
