Lens Is More

Category: Still life

  • Storefront, Bretagne, France

    C. Thompson

    (2017)

  • Bachelor apartment, Philadelphia

    C. Thompson
    Everything right where it belonged

    (1993)

  • Silence, Philadelphia

    C. Thompson

    (2019)

  • Smokers’ corner, Wilmington, Del.

    C. Thompson
    I feel seen.

    (2019)

  • Forsaken steed, Havertown, Pa.

    C. Thompson
    So close to the pizza shop.

    Big Bronco (not his real name) was distraught. Beyond lay the country where his mistress had gone after leaving 50 cents in that contraption keeping him here. He had been moving then. Now he was stuck again. Perhaps, if only he had 50 cents of his own, he would be free to rush into the night that has beckoned him since she skipped away all those many, many years ago. (1991)

  • Haunted halls, Philadelphia

    C. Thompson
    Fig leaves for everyone.

    My boss and coworkers walk ahead in a part of the museum at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts where classes were still being taught and where it was common to find a student, or many, parked in this statuary with a pad and charcoal. The institution was founded in 1805, and the building in this photo dates to 1876, so there are probably more spirits misting around than these guys. (1991)

  • Beach house, Avalon, N.J.

    C. Thompson
    IMG_20180317_0007
    ‘Summer Breeze’

    We found this house in 2009 when searching for a September rental after the sale of the family refuge that my grandparents built on Cape Cod. It has been our late-summer escape since. It’s one of the last of its breed, an old-style Jersey shore house, unpretentious and comfortable, with a kitchen and table ready for beach nights. (2014)

    54670006
    Only plays ’70s hits.

    For the first 10 years, this radio sat on a side table in the living room, prominent among the relics of old beach houses — warped coasters, missing checkers pieces, take-out menus from the 80s, books left behind by distracted readers. Last year the radio was gone, presumably taken up by the owners, who knew a good artifact when they saw one. (2016)

  • Forgotten lives, Philadelphia

    C. Thompson
    IMG_20180311_0028
    Resting in pieces

     

    Daughter of Francis and Anne

    (2004)

  • Back alley, Erie, Pa.

    C. Thompson
    Perhaps the most colorful space in the city.

    I loaded up the Leica M4, the Nikkormat FTn and the Zeiss Ikon Ikonta 521/16 for a six-day tour of Pennsylvania, my home state. I had dozens of rolls of film — 35 mm, 120 rollfilm, color, B&W (which got most of the work), you name it. But sometimes a shot is just a shot; this was taken on my phone. (2019)

  • Heron Crest Studios, Aston, Pa.

    C. Thompson
    Trout to the left

    This blog was resurrected in part because of the yearlong project that involved scanning and cataloguing every photo I ever took. (It was supposed to be a three-month project, but, yeah.) It was all done here in Aston, Pa., down the road from where I used to live, at an artists’ studio complex. My neighbors in the converted mill were real artists. I am not.

    A year in this light.

    So, I spent my weekends in this room, from cold to heat to cold, from football to baseball, reliving my life. This was taken on the day I left. (2017)