Old Photo #120 – Peeling Brick Wall

The mysterious beauty in – and fascination generated by – the process of entropy: the lines in a face, the colours of leaves and blossoms as they journey back to the earth, the devolution of buildings as their creators and inhabitants lose interest, move on to something new, or simply succumb to the debility of age themselves.

This brick wall on Notre Dame Avenue, I believe, had been painted numerous times over the years, then not.

Old Photo #119 – Warehouse

The T. Eaton Co. seemed, when I was a very young and impressionable country bumpkin visiting Winnipeg with my parents, an entity of magnificent size and impervious to entropy. It, like so many apparently permanent fixtures of Canadian life, has all but vanished from the landscape over the past 50 years.

This Eaton's warehouse, located just east of Main Street around Logan Avenue, was already showing signs of fatigue 20 years after my first encounter of Timothy Eaton, the magnificent bronze man.

Old Photo #118 – Julius, the Barber

Today's pick for Old Photograph has been made by Cole. I'm posting from the charmingly simple Ace Motel in Belle Fourche, SD, where Cole and I arrived at 5:30 this afternoon for a couple of days of shooting in the Black Hills and Badlands.

Not surprisingly, he chose an environmental portrait of his great-grandfather, Julius Pelser. As I recall, this photo was taken either at Christmas or Easter. The location was the chair immediately beside the front door entrance to his home on 4th Street, Winkler. (I recently posted a photo of the house.)

While Mr. Pelser needed no help with creating an air of dignity, the snowy white hair and aquiline nose added markedly to his nobility. Quiet and kind, always ready with a smile.

Old Photo #117 – Lone Yellow Pine

My head is pretty muddy today, so my typically marginal recall ability is even murkier. It seems to me Ruth was attending a conference in Denver and, as per usual, I accompanied her. On this particular day, I took a drive up toward Rocky Mountain National Park. I would like to be shining like this tree these days.

Old Photo #116 – Village near Valenza, Italy

In '94, we visited friends in Italy. The story of my re-entering the Autostrada without a proper ticket, how the tollbooth operator's skullcap separated from his cranium upon coming to a realization of my transgression is one story. This photo, though, was taken in a village of some 10,000 where we saw only one shop operator and one drunk singing loudly from a second-storey window.

Old Photo #115 – Cold Front, Hwy 8, 6/97

Cole & I were on our way into Winnipeg for the weekend. As we neared the city, this cold front loomed over us. We actually pulled over to assess the wisdom of carrying on.

Cold fronts wash over us in so many ways: change of relationship, loss of loved ones, loss of purpose, health issues. In their fury is also the root of their eventual moving on.

Old Photo #114 – Door Knob & Latch

A quiet afternoon in the spring of 1974. A small house in the whistlestop of Gordon, MB. The door was open. Happy Easter.

Old Photo #113 – Plum Coulee 4

Back in my Plum Coulee days, Bob Reichert was the Postmaster. His job made him central in the village's daily life, but he was involved in all manner of community activities after hours. His daughter, Sandra, recently accepted a posthumous award for community service on his behalf.

Mr. Reichert's youngest son, Jim, created a major commotion in Coulee when, in the early '60s, he got a set of drums and began practicing feverishly in his bedroom just two doors from the entrance to the Collegiate. We younger boys were in awe, of course and, years later, he joined the band I was in. I'm not sure where Jim hangs his sticks these days, but our guitarist is now the mortician for the Winkler/Morden/Plum Coulee area, our keyboardist is the CFO for a radio network headquartered in Altona, and I'm a monocular photographer up in the Interlake.

Old Photo #112 – Plum Coulee 3

This house, at the time of my growing up in Plum Coulee, was owned by my father's uncle & aunt, James & Agnes Peters. It, along with another house or two I photographed back in the day, was one of the many 'tired' houses; in need of paint and TLC.

Aunt Agnes did not take kindly to the late '60s trend of boys growing long hair. To be fair, her numbers were legion in small Mennonite towns, and my brothers & I bore the brunt of much of that criticism in our village. Ah well, all things pass, as has the long hair on the Brothers Peters.

Old Photo #111 – Plainscape 10

One day, back in the late '70s (did I photograph significantly in any other decade), Ken (Zach) Zacharias, George Bednarczyk and I jumped in a car and headed off into the Manitoba countryside for a boys' day of photography. Somewhere west of Winnipeg, down Hwy. #2 I think, we came across an abandoned schoolyard, complete with school and a duplex housing unit.

While George played the piano, I mused on my days in the old Plum Coulee Collegiate, with "The Hilroy Exercise Book" in a rainbow of colours that populated my elementary school years. No, we didn't wear beanie-style English school caps in Coulee.

Old Photo #110 – Plainscape 2

Looking west from Plum Coulee. This was my morning and evening vista from 1955 - 1969.

Old Photo #109 – Patrick Turner 2

I met Patrick on the phone back in 1976. The company with whom I dealt in NYC had hired an aspiring, young actor/playwright to handle various aspects of their administrative duties and one of my contacts, Bill Hickey, made a point of introducing us via the phone because of our shared creative interests.

Many fine conversations were had until I was finally able to meet him in NYC. This photo was taken during one of our extended late-night reconnoitres.

Old Photo #108 – Jamie & Gareth

England in December 1971, again. Once again, Jamie Lloyd, the enchanting troll emerges from under his bridge with son, Gareth, in a head-lock.

Old Photo #107 – England/'71

Bexhill-on-Sea. A Sunday. A couple heading to church on a brisk December morning.

Old Photo #106 – Daycare 1

Back in the '70s, my then wife, Wanda Pelser, worked in a daycare centre – including during the time I was studying photography at Red River College. I loved some of the children there, particularly this sweet boy, whose name I think was Nir. He was exceedingly shy and quiet as I recall, and his eyes – huge and always wholly observant – drew my camera many times.

Old Photo #105 – Cityscape 9

This image is too loaded with symbolism: the dull weather; the Aboriginal youth striding purposefully out of Winnipeg's North End over the Salter Street Bridge; the dark, sooty cloud attending him like a dark, hovering angel.

Did he make it out? Was he able to lift his eyes to a brighter day? Was the dark cloud replaced by something more benevolent? Or was it a bridge to nowhere?

Old Photo 104 – Bert Freeman 3

Another aspect of one of my favorite people.

Old Photo #103 – Bukka White

The legendary bluesman, Bukka White, tuning up before a workshop at the 1974 Winnipeg Folk Festival.

Old Photo #102 – Cityscape 1

Calvary Temple has been a downtown Winnipeg landmark since 1928. In fact, the ediface was there as the First Baptist Church of Winnipeg for many years prior.

For a considerable time during the '70s, the Temple's tower was in the steady and unblinking gaze of this billboard.

Old Photo #101 – Abstract 56

The blinding triune light visits Great West Life corporate headquarters.

Old Photo #100 – Abstract 50

Taken while housesitting the Rodger's home some dozen winters ago. Exploring the shapes of the shrubs outside their dining room window occupied me for an hour or so one afternoon.

Old Photo #99 – Abstract 49

A self-portrait in the doorway of 460 Main Street, Winnipeg during a snowfall. The shoulder-length hair suggests another mid-'70s photo.

Until today, I hadn't noticed the subtle "Push-Pull-Push" message at my waist level: an apt comment on my life then and, likely, my entire life. City/country, creative/business... the list goes on. I have pushed, been pulled, pushed back, pulled away... In retrospect, it's all exceedingly curious and interesting to an audience of one.

Old Photo #98 – Abstract 27

"... put up a parking lot. Dooo, do, do, do, do." So ends of one of Joni Mitchell's songs, and so ended this yard.

This tired exterior belied the warm interior of Jill & Cole's great-grandfather's home, which he shared with their Great-Aunt Lillian. Julius Pelser was a snowy-haired, quiet and kind gentleman. I have a portrait or two of him, which I'll post in future. He was one of Winkler Manitoba's earliest barbers, a trade which he shared and passed on to the kids' grandfather, Leonard (see Old Photo #11).

Old Photo #97 – Abstract 25

Evoking Leonard Cohen or Capistrano, but it's Plum Coulee.

Today I heard the first Robin. The Kestrels, Sandhill Cranes & Meadow Larks – among others I can't yet identify – have been since late last week.

Old Photo #96 – Abstract 20

Elephantine tree stump.

Old Photo #95 – Abstract 18

The summer of 1976, high atop the Floating Ecstasy Waterbed building on Osborne Street, Winnipeg. We had an apartment above the waterbed store (main floor) and the Winnipeg Bridge Club (second floor). Very funky space; very smoky for a few days after the Wednesday night tournaments at the Bridge Club.

The photo is a detail shot of the chrome arm of a patio chair.

Old Photo #94 – Soldier, Portage & Main

Old Photo #93 – Voyeur 35

A community summer festival, likely Vergas, MN.

Old Photo #92 – Fungi on Tree Trunk

Old Photo #91 – Beyond Birth & Death

Daughter Jill at under 1 year. We were at her Nana & Gramps' house. I can't recall if she crawled into the chair or we put her there, but she reached for the book on the side table and spent long minutes pondering its contents. This was not a set-up, in case you're wondering.

She's always been an exceptionally bright child.