2812 photography
Ray at The Missouri Lounge
Concinnity. It’s not a common word, possibly because it’s not a common quality. It’s a term most often used in music to describe the harmonious and elegant fitting together of different parts of a musical arrangement — how a bass line might support and enhance the alliteration of certain lyrics, for example. The term is equally useful to describe any artful work in which one element works in close harmony with another. Think of the way a master luthier uses the grain of the wood to embellish the graceful curve of the neck of a violin.
Concinnity. We see it in this photograph by Pete Rosos. Ray at the Missouri Lounge. Ray looks like the sort of fellow who enjoys a beer and a laugh. It’s a wonderful photograph, a happy-making photograph. But there’s more to it than that. Ray is a regular — a frequent customer. He’s a regular in a type of old-school neighborhood bar — the sort of unassuming drinking establishment that’s rapidly being replaced with corporate style tap-rooms and hipster brew-pubs. There’s still more to it: the photograph was shot using an old Polaroid Land Camera — an ‘instant’ camera first introduced in the late 1940s. And if that’s not enough, it was shot on old camera using expired film.
Old-style film, old-style camera, old-style guy in an old-style bar. The harmonious reinforcement of the various parts of a work of art.
Concinnity.
Blog photograph copyrighted to the photographer and used with permission by utata.org. All photographs used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and are obtained via the flickr API. Text is copyrighted to the author, greg fallis and is used with permission by utata.org. Please see Show and Share Your Work
