Lens Is More

Category: Indoors

  • The W&J, Northern Liberties, Philadelphia

    C. Thompson
    “Youth must keep decently away.” (Eugene O’Neill)

    The first time I entered this joint, on a late night in spring, my friends and I had to be buzzed in. It was named the W&J, at 5th & Poplar Sts., and both Walter and Juliette, the aging Polish couple who owned it, were on the other side of the door along with absolutely no one else. There were handwritten signs prohibiting cursing. This was the Philadelphia few knew. I moved into the neighborhood a couple years later, at the cusp of its gentrification, and not long after that the place was sold to a couple of guys in their 30s who turned it into what would then have been called a hipster bar. The guys were OK, but the secret weirdness was gone. (2001)

  • Parole officers, Philadelphia

    C. Thompson
    Might have a problem.

    One of their fellow officers, somewhat incongruously, was a member of a squash and tennis club on the Main Line where I tended bar. The Fox show COPS was just in development, and this outfit was featured in the pilot (something like that). The club member invited me to tag along with the guys for a while, with a story in mind for some publication. But there was competition for my time and what would pay for it, and the story was never written, to my lasting regret. Because dear God it was an insane story. Like the predawn raid (for which I was given a Kevlar vest) when they all went bursting into a crackhouse rowhome, leaving the entrance uncovered. Who’s got the front door? I shouted, because I had learned a couple things by then. “You do.” (1989)

  • Ennui, Glen Mills, Pa.

    C. Thompson
    Not a yurt.

    When we were kids, my cousin, Carter, whom you’ve met here years ago, and I used to explore the ruins of the once-mighty Whitemarsh Hall. (We called it Stotesbury Mansion, but that was actually the name of its predecessor.) Inside, it looked similar to this. We never had the urge for graffiti (if only I’d had a camera), but the energy was the same: a hidden place for adolescent notions of liberty and exploration. And destruction. This is an outbuilding at Sleighton Farm School. We’ve been here before and we’ll come back again. (2020)

  • Bulletin board, Philadelphia

    C. Thompson
    Preppy girl wanted.

    (1990)

  • Alto, West Philadelphia

    C. Thompson
    Ever faithful.

    This is Emily, who was called Alto, my precious little girl who deserved a better life than I gave her in my twenties. She curled up with me anyway, until I had to go away to New York City to claim a life and left her behind. She lived out her years in the ample lap of a friend of my mother, with another dog and plenty of love, while going blind and deaf. She was put down when the old woman died, I learned after the fact. It’s not worth touching up the debris on the shot. We lived a dirty, meager life. Might as well own it. (1987)

  • Peter’s apartment, Philadelphia

    C. Thompson

    (1998)

  • Statuary, Philadelphia

    C. Thompson

    (1991)

  • Coffee shop, Philadelphia

    C. Thompson

    (2019)

  • Dirty Frank’s, Philadelphia

    C. Thompson
    Today’s special: no children

    (1992)

  • Late lunch, Lyon, France

    C. Thompson
    IMG_20180318_0009
    Mère et fille

    (2014)