I was feeling chipper one day while walking around our quiet and messy downtown and I decided to drop by my bank and ask my bank officer for a ten million dollar line of credit. Did I have anything in mind that I wanted the LOC for? No. I just thought it would be cool to have one. You know, just in case; maybe an impulse purchase of an airplane. Or a big stretch, like a complete, collectible Leica camera system or something nice for the wife...
After my banker finished laughing and calling people into his office to share the story with he calmed down and he asked if I was now insane or if it was just the heat talking. We chatted a bit about masters swimming (we've both swum on the same team for at least the last decade) and then there was a long silence which I interpreted as a signal that I should get the hell out of his office. I left with the assurance that he would keep my account open. For now.
I stepped out of the bank lobby and into the main lobby of the tall building which houses both his bank and several others. The lights and curved railings looked, in the moment, appealing so I took the Leica Q2 off my shoulder and set about making a series of shots. Architectural shots. (Here is where a famous blogger steps in to tell me, with intense directness, that I am NOT an architectural photographer. The fact of which I am well aware...).
In times past when I have pulled out a camera and blazed away on private property, inside a building bristling with banks and law offices it has elicited an almost immediate response from security workers hellbent on telling me where to go. And what not to photograph. Which is their right. I guess.
But nothing of the sort happened on this occasion. It must have been the authoritative look of those Birkenstock sandals. Or maybe the relative cleanliness of those khaki short pants. But truthfully I think it's the white hair and the bi-focals. I was exuding enough "old guy" harmlessness that I'm pretty sure I could have set up an 8x10 view cameras, ducked under the dark cloth and still not prodded the security team to stand up from their padded chairs and investigate.
Either one of those reasons or....maybe my bank officer called them and told them not to worry....
Shot in medium sized Jpeg set to Monochrom HC. The start of a new career..... not.
14 comments:
"There he stood, in utter embarrassment, suffering the penalty of having supposed that one may pluck even a single leaf from the laurel tree of art and not pay for it with one's life."
I always have this Thomas Mann quote somewhere in my head when I take photos. : )
Those photos look good to me. On another note, one bank I use has a sign at the door, "remove sunglasses and hat".
At one time they had a visit by a robber.
My bank branch is so thrilled to have an actual customer walk through the door that I could probably film a YouTube video on "how to rob a bank" on the premises, and they would help with it.
If you really want to see lonely bankers just go in and ask to see a wealth manager. Currently banks are shedding them like huskies shed fur....
I was looking up a photo the other day and found it on an american museum website, interestingly it had all the photo's tech details then also said "Line of credit", then "xxx fund", like one of their benefactors, seemed like they hadn't just given them a bunch of cash but paid for things as and when
this one:
https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.218948.html
Why don't you start an aqua blog? Keep separate from your camera views.
Congratulations! you got the lines straight on the bank pics.
Roy Benson
OMG. I'm so excited. Reader Roy Benson is so in love with the swimming component of the blog that he's basically begging me to ramp up a separate blog about swimming. Well, I don't really have time to do justice to both topics the way they deserve and splitting the content would make for even more work so I'll just have to write harder! So happy with the great feedback about blending swimming and photography!!!!!
Of course, Roy, you could write an anti-swimming blog and maybe it would somehow cancel out the swim parts of my blog. That's an idea! I mean, if the swim parts don't move you ---- spiritually.
And I'm not sure why you are congratulating me on slavishly "getting straight lines on the bank pics." There's a little level in just about every digital camera for the dangerously compulsive to reference while soullessly documenting mundane scenes exactly as they are.
YMMV
The sweeping curves of the bank's architecture and the long tonal range of your images immediately called to mind the beautiful Gottscho-Schleisner architectural photographs that feature so prominently on Shorpy.com. Nice stuff!
Hi Bob, Thank you for your kind and compassionate words about my work. Much, much appreciated.
Nice bank lobby, but spooky to see so few (no) people there.
I tend toward architectural subjects when I’m in an urban setting. These photos look pretty good to me.
"North end", "east end" of the pool - does one need to bring a compass to obey to the rules? ;) Hugo
No.
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