Jacob, my younger brother endured a lot of “photographic ideas” throughout the early years. The reasons for this are simple. 

-He was always available 

-He had nothing else going on 

-He was forced to 

I don’t remember anything about the production of this photograph. I don’t remember getting the flash of inspiration. I don’t remember walking over to the school field. I don’ t remember negotiating the subjects into position. Jacobs expression tells me that by the time his hands were in the position I wanted he was at the end of his patience with this project. 

It’s mounted onto mat board and is in my high school photography box. That’s it. 

I’ll tell you something about the two guys in the photograph though: 

Matt, the fellow in the background teaches High School photography classes in Pasco, Washington. He and I were talking on the phone a couple of days ago. I sent this image to him in an email. He laughed and then told me something interesting about his classes. At the end of the semester he asked if anyone would like their digital photography on CD. No one wanted them. 

He said “I guess when you work like we had to in the dark room to process the film and print in an enlarger the images have a lot more value. The digital images these kids produce have no value to them.” 

He was just a High School sophomore when I spent a year at Boise State University.  We spent a lot of time photographing and printing together. Boise State had a large darkroom so I took Matt along with me to the darkroom every week. I coached him to say “I’m in Linda’s class.” if anyone ever asked who he was. No one ever asked. It’s a dark room for crying out loud. 

We’d go to dairy queen for a dilly bar to end each night. I like the butterscotch dilly bar. It was fun to fill in the cracks between my teeth with the waxy shell as I’d drive home. 

Jacob works for Senator Mike Crapo. He raises money for the Senators campaign. It’s a very respectable thing to do. He has a snazzy little office in downtown Boise. It’s on the 4th floor off 10th and Idaho. It’s got an old white tile floor. Hard as a rock. Jake loves old Bell company telephones. “They’re built to last”  He bought several phones off ebay one time and installed one of them in his office. He smiles broadly when he tells us how the old mechanical brass bell tears through the 4th floor off that tile. 

I had forgotten how fashionable Jake was in his younger years. Just look at those acid washed pants. Fashionable!