Strangers On A Train

I met up with Matt and did a little shooting at the Peace March. I was bored. But there were a couple of the usual "maybe" shots. However - as usual - on the way there, and on the way back I got (hoping) a couple of good shots that had nothing to do with the march. I think the march functions like the phone series. Just something to get me moving.

I suspect that unless you're paying me to cover the event (your own ideas here) my mind wanders. But -- I had an absolutely fascinating train ride home.

Fascinating to me. It was just a mood or a vibe in my corner of the train. Very strange. Everyone very relaxed. It started when an older black guy (I hate that description. Picture Scatman Crothers) - sits down opposite me; stares at the camera a while and then says, "That one beauty of a camera."

This leads into some sort of conversation about the old time stuff and how beautifully it was made and I asked, yes asked - if he'd mind if I took his portrait. Oh sure. And he looked into the lens. One shot. And pulling on the lever I feel that I'm at the end of the roll. I tell him I'm out of film and just smiles and says: I'm ready when you are D.B.

Yeah, he actually uses my initials. But it's also an expression I guess.

As I'm changing film, the doors open and a young white couple (I should do police descriptions) enter the scene. The wife is pretty and pregnant. The woman beside me is scratching her foot in its sandal and talks to the couple across the way about giving birth.

- Now that's something you should get a picture of, she says to me. (Uh, that's about the last thing I want to photograph). She's moving her sandal thong around. As is usual with passengers on the subway - she knows everything. Maybe it's not confined to the subway and everyone actually believes they do know everything.

The young husband is being peppered with advice and stories from the woman with the itchy foot. Now she moves the sandal so that I can see a cut on her heel and in the arch. A little bloody.

She wants to know if I have any bandaids. Uh - she has me confused with a medic. It might be the camera bag.

She was coming from the peace parade. How far did you walk, I ask. She closes her eyes and doing the calculations she finally sputters: 4 blocks I think. From 23rd to 18th street.

I think that's five blocks say I. And she closes her eyes and does the math again.

It was sort of like being in the middle of a strange party. I had the camera to my eye and could pretty much click away at anyone

The couple get off at 59th after the pregnant woman has been given the secrets of life by the scatman wizard and the woman with the sore foot.

Then, as if that wasn't enough a young girl who looks like she's on her way to church steps inside the train and sits in the empty seat next to the wizard. And now they're sitting there like ma and pa kettle in American Gothic.

But there's nothing on that bench anymore that gives any sense of this time period. The old and young characters look like they were in To Kill A Mockingbird. Or that we were in the delta - standing at the crossroads --

Okay that's what I was feeling during those 6 or so subway stops. Now - is any of it on film? I don't know.