For Sale!! Call it what you will: The “Paris Gun“, “Behemoth” or simply the “Mother of all Nikon Zooms”. This is the rare Nikon Telephoto 8.5 cm – 25 cm f/4 zoom lens c.1961. Production number 675/1290. It is ours and it could be yours for the right price. Inquire at info@dispatchpresimages.com.
Cave Crickets (Rhaphidophoridae). Apologies to those folks in some parts of our world who consider cave crickets to be a delicacy. Some people even keep them as pets. I realize that on God’s green earth they are here to serve a purpose by killing harmful insects. They accomplish their task in life by primarily living outside of our homes, eating whatever they find and making little crickets. As their name suggests they prefer dark, damp environments such as caves. But when they decide to take up residence in my crawl space a conflict is created between man and beast. Although they may pose no danger to me or my family I choose not to live among them. Here on Long Island they are considered pests or a nuisance. To rid one’s home of the invaders sticky pest strips seem to do the trick. They are sold in boxes containing five strips in hardware stores and run about $10.00. Five days goes pretty fast before you need a refill. Which bring us to my solution.
An issue that more and more of us can now relate to as a result of the impact of COVID19. As we line up at the food bank each morning we connect with those around the world for whom hunger is endemic. This photo “Hunger” c.1960 connects us to the work of Dorothea Lange during the Great Depression. Perhaps we are not that far removed from another Depression as what goes around comes around albeit in a slightly different format.
Alfred Eisenstaedt would have probably be awarded the Pulitizer Prize in 1945 for his Times Square photo were it not for Joe Rosenthal’s photo “Flag Raising on Iwo Jima” on Mt. Suribachi. Eisenstaedt’s photo was of the sailor kissing a nurse – “V-J Day in Times Square” a/k/a “V-J Day” a/k/a “The Kiss”. It remains one of the most recognizable photos ever taken. Maybe it’s foolish to even try to compete with these masters of photography, but it does not stop us from trying. DPI’s photo “The Kiss” (July 1948) might have been influenced by Eisenstaedt. This romantic couple’s smooch occurred nearly three years following Eisenstaedt’s photo which was published in Life. I have a sense that there might have been a connection to the church across the street (Episcopal Church of the Incarnation). We are left to wonder if the couple participated in a happy event at the church such as a wedding or a baptism.
As Forrest Gump said, “That’s one less thing to worry about, and that’s a good thing.” So for Donald Trump I think that it’s safe to say that there will be one less thing for him to worry about. There will not be any statues honoring him. So there ain’t going to be any to tear down. And that’s a good thing!
“Little Round Top“; Gettysburg Battlefield, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (September 1994).
It has been said that the winners write the history books. So where will this all end? I’m talking about the removal of statues currently taking place. Remember that the Taliban dynamited statues of Buddha in Afghanistan when they were in control? History, after all, remains history whether we choose to acknowledge it or not. Should we be more tolerant of all peoples of course we should. That is the underlying premise ingrained in Dispatch Press Images. But blowing up statues is not the end all and be all. Changing what is in someone’s heart it the real challenge for society.
So simple and yet so striking. You know it when you see it. A straightforward composition that almost looks like a painting. All the elements come together, but only for a moment. “First Army“; U.S. c.1951. Note the shoulder patch. Taking a reading probably at either Fort Jackson or Fort Bragg.
Peaceful protests can bring about change. The Three Mile Island protest march was instrumental in helping to close the nuclear power plant. Anti-nuclear protests had occurred in Germany and the U. K. in the 1960s and 1970s which spread eventually to the U. S. The movie The China Syndrome opened about 10 days before the accident at Three Mile Island. How coincidental. This protest in Washington, D. C. took place about five weeks later.
Quite clearly not a new phenomenon. Sweatshirt reads “Thou Shalt Not Hassle”.
“Taking A Knee“; U. S. c.1975
I purchased a Nikon lens from a dealer in Tokyo, Japan at 7:30 P. M. DST in New York on June 2. This is a used lens that I didn’t know that I wanted or needed until I had done some research during this pandemic. Depending on your wants or needs there are some very good buys these days due to the current economic and unemployment situations. This was one of them.