Black and White World

Friday night, July 17

My brother Jimmie was staying in my old bedroom and Mom and Dad's house, and I went up there to visit him. In fact, his bed occupied the same space mine did, long ago. As I approached him, I noticed that he'd set up his stuff, just so, and there were a few surprises. I began to notice several black and white pictures in black frames. They weren't photographs; instead, they appeared to be silhouettes -- some of which Jimmie had made. I was intrigued. The first one I noticed was a picture of a hand, rendered in black, on a stark white background. I said, "I really like this." He said, "I made it." Looking around, I saw another neat picture, this one a very dark brown image of a coffee cup, and a few rings or spills for good measure. I asked him if he'd made that one, too. He said that he hadn't; he thought he'd seen it in a magazine. In fact, he didn't know where he'd gotten it, but he'd found it somewhere along the way, and kept it.

*****

Jimmie always had a good eye, and experimented with photography starting back when he was quite young. I especially like some of his black and white work.

And I've often clipped images that I really liked from magazines. I still find them filed away, years after the fact.