Dear Arthur: What’s Your Story?

20060515_02Callalillie discovered a treasure trove of photo negatives on the streets of Red Hook. they belonged to a man named Arthur. I’m not sure how Callalillie figured that out. Maybe she named the man who is pictured in most of the scenes. Now she is reprinting them and trying to figure out the story that lies within them. I think it’s a very interesting project.

Whoever it was that took these photographs probably did not think of
them as diptychs. Most likely, the negatives were cut this way to save
space. Still, we found the images in sets of two and, since the moment
we scanned and developed them, cannot help but read them like short
vignettes.

A lake and mountain meld as one behind a foreground of greenery. At
right, a man and woman pose. They are at the edge of land. It is as if
they are the only living souls amidst the faint blur of nature.

What is the story here?

–Callalillie