Photos Recovered

Some time early in this decade my dad gave me a box of old photos that had belonged to his father. Grandpa Grund was a distant figure to me. We never saw much of him. He was built like an ox and had a big, raspy voice. He had moved his family to Ohio from Des Moines, Iowa, to be part of the scrap business. Armco steel was a mighty venture then, headquartered in Middletown. Grandma Grund died when I was very young.

Armco, like my grandfather, is no more. Similarly the relatives and their friends who populate these magnificent photographs are no longer around. The era of American manufacturing might is mostly gone as is the world made visible in these faded images. I am struck by how well everyone is dressed, even in casual situations. Other than my grandparents I don’t know who anyone is. I have asked my dad to sit with me soon and identify as many of them as he can.

A few years ago I put many of the photos in the box into an album. I took the album to my studio and later it disappeared. For over two years I could not find this album of photos. Just last week I uncovered it at the bottom of a stack, like an archeological find. There is an elegance, a restraint, an innocence, perhaps, that I see in these people that is largely unseen today. We are too used to the camera, too filled with information and experiences to be as uncalculating as these folks. Too much can be made of this I know - people haven’t changed all that much throughout history. But there is something memorable and a touch wistful in looking through this album.

I see my grandparents looking very young and in love. Grandma Grund wears my favorite hair style. In another photo I see two women sitting on a man’s lap and I develop an instant crush on the beautiful young woman at the right. They are all strangers. All passed away. Gone from present time but able to stir emotions through aging images that gather new mystery and meaning by virtue of their survival into the future.