Memphis in Winter

I’ve been working a little in the past mostly because I keep finding “lost” images in my archives. I don’t understand something about that. I use a couple of cloud services for backup. One is Apple’s cloud. It’s because it’s on all my digital tools. The iMac, iPhone, iPad and a backup Samsung phone.

Every one of those tools, er, toys has a different collection of photographs. Don’t ask me why. I don’t know. You’d think if the archives are different the best archive would be on the iMac. You’d be wrong. The biggest archive lives on the Samsung phone. Again, I don’t know why. Isn’t a particular cloud all one cloud? Not layers or individual locations?

In many ways it doesn’t matter. I’m not a digital guy. You know that. What does matter is missing pictures. I’m happy to find these “lost” images, no matter where I find them.

I made this photograph in Memphis in the winter which is lot like New Orleans in the winter. Even though the city is north of NOLA by 300 miles, I’m pretty sure that the Mississippi River is the defining cause.

We went there one winter a few years back to support a friend of mine who was playing in the blues contest and festival. He is a very, very good singer who plays guitar, back then, in a blues trio. We thought that we might bring him luck.

We didn’t.

He progressed through lower levels but didn’t make it to the finals. It was a very sad moment when we learned he didn’t have the chance to move on.

Aside from bringing luck, I was there to make pictures. In terms of music I photographed everything that moved, played or sang. Or, ate and drank. Yes. We spent a lot of time on Beale Street. Maybe, one of these days I’ll publish a little portfolio of the images I made. Maybe I’ll do a lot of things.

And, that’s the story from Memphis, Tennessee.

Think Chuck Berry when you read the last sentence.