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Page 11 · column 5 of 7 · from the scan, no model involved
By DAVID L. ARNOLD
Rappahannock News Contributing Writer
Wouldn’t you know, exactly the kind of photograph that I could not find in nearly 100 rolls of film at National Geographic Friday was right there waiting for me at the “Faces of Rappahannock” Show at the Middle Street Gallery.
In Henry Eastwood’s “Etlan Store” three good old guys, baseball capped, warm the bench on the store’s porch and come to a chuckle as an even older guy coming out hand-pats the shoulder of a young woman customer on her way in.
That’s the bare bones, but what makes the picture, as they say in the trade, is that one of the bench men is black, and so is the woman, and all are acting like they know each other in a nice color-blind kind of way. Jus’ small-place folks on a summer’s day, drinking in the birdsong, and in a second the store’s screen door will slap shut and the moment will be gone. Except that, thankfully, Henry Eastwood captured it for us forever.
Maybe that’s my favorite, but certainly there are some others. Take the bizarre hand-painted photograph, “Flat,” by Francie Schroeder. Goodness knows what got her to concoct that little laughable nightmare, but she takes the world’s squarest car, the old Volvo 144, gives it a flat tire (which it deserves), peoples it with noisome kids who “help out” by pulling each other’s hair and swinging badminton rackets at each other’s heads, while the mother has what I think can only be a nervous breakdown. One must thank Francie Schroeder for giving some relativity to our owm hassles.
For my money, the “stopper” of the show is June Jordan’s pastel of a young, or maybe old, black man, “Robert.” Beneath the brim of his New York Yankees baseball hat Robert’s eyes wander away from us - not weak, not strong, just gone someplace where we cannot quite seem to get to. His hands, folded gently on themselves for what looks like forever, reinforce the impression that Robert’s durability comes from some supportive inner solitude, of which we might well feel envy.
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