A Slice of Life

It came to me the other day, that I ought to digitize and preserve some of my favorite black and white images from when I was a staff photographer for the Huntsville Times. After over twenty years, I had amassed a sizable collection of bracketed reject negatives of some of the images that I thought were significant in some way. It may have been the historic aspect of the event or the notoriety of the subject that compelled me to hang on to a particular negative.

Some images, like this one below, were retained, not for any reason other than the fact that I liked them very much. This one was shot over 30 years ago. I came upon these four boys sitting outside a rural convenience store, eating popsicles. I asked if I could take their photo for the paper, and of course they said “sure thing mister.” Those were the days, before you had to hunt down the parents and ask their permission. I liked the fact that they resisted the impulse to mug the camera, smile and make funny faces, which is what most boys that age typically will do. They were a serious bunch, or maybe they were just concentrating on eating those popsicles. I remember that it was one of the hottest days of the year, so who could blame them. My editor never ran the picture though. He said that the boys looked too mean, too sinister. He wanted a happy summer's day feature photo, not one where the subjects looked like juvenile delinquents ready to knock over a liqueur store.

I can't help but wonder where they all are today.