postcard pick/ postcard finds
I've always had a thing about postcards - I have thousands. Not really a ‘collection’, more a ‘focused accumulation’. Appealing on many levels - the message content, the date, the stamp, it's really the image content that does it for me - that’s the trigger. It's something about the scale that draws me to them. My focus is really on the mundane, even boring, but there has to be something there that grabs me, whatever it is.
My main categories: New York City / America(motels, airports, factories etc) / Roads / Rome / Colosseum / Italy / Pin-ups & couples. Of course there are others but really those are enough!
postcard worlds
Some of the older postcards from the 40s and 50s I pick up are of course used and provide an amazing window into another time and world. Personal notes to friends or relatives, often while on holiday. Along with the stamp and the date sent, combined with the postcard image, form a perfect time capsule. Sometimes short, simple and evocative, other times full letters squeezed into the space on the back. Getting used to deciphering the hand-writing is part of the challenge but, most of the time, it’s possible.
One thing I find interesting is their use as ‘messaging’ - e.g ‘see you Sat or Sun’ This infers that the postcard would arrive quickly, in a day or two (when the Post Office was efficient and could be relied on).
There are favorites of course which I’ll share over the weeks.
Dear Sara, I’m having fun. The water is nice and warm. Judy Garland, the movie actress is staying at the Inn where we eat. I haven’t seen her yet. Love Barbara.
July 9th 1949
With texting, instant communication and phone cameras, there really isn’t any need for sending postcards, or even buying them anymore. My interest has become an obsolete reference! I find it strange to be talking to friend's children in their early 20s who have never sent or received a postcard. That's a shame. Believe or not, last time I was in Italy, I had a tough time even finding stamps.
Over the years I have made art from and about postcards and how we look at them - they have been the catalyst for a lot of my artwork. Early on, it was in Italy where space was tight and working small scale made sense, it was the postcard subject that lead my work away from figurative or representational, to taking on a more conceptual approach.
3 in a row
three sequenced photos from my instagram account which I’m not going to be posting much to anymore. Whether it’s color, shape, angle or subject, I try to find connections, usually including one vintage photo I took in the ‘80s.
focus
A view across midtown in the evening glow over the down to earth reality of the Lower East Side (so called ‘Alphabet City’)
The Lower East Side when you could get a clear view to the Empire ♥️