traveling on frank's nexus

I do wish I had spent more time with Frank Stewart's exhibit while he was here for the Savannah Music Festival.

I kept thinking I'd "get a round TUIT"... so I never did.

I tried once, planning on having three blondes with me, but that plan failed.

I kept thinking the exploration of the decades of his work would be part of my annual birthday trip to the Jepson museum.

Nope!

It's leaving town on Sunday.

That's why I devoted this afternoon to taking in as much of it as I could.

 

This is when his long-standing fascination with photography first began, the origin of his time-traveling nexus.

The year was 1963 and he was 14 years old.

His mom had brought him for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, giving him her camera to capture the moment.

Here is one of his thoughts as a teenager.

"It was interesting to me that it seemed as many white people as Black people were there."

I found it interesting that he capitalized "black" but did not do the same for "white".

I also found this configuration of his original 9 photos very interesting, and wondered why it had been chosen and whether he had been the one who had that final say.

Interesting.

This was one of the first photos that really grabbed me.

Titled "Yokohama 2004", the blurb posted by the shot said he took the shot "to capture the repeating arcs".

So, what about it spoke to me?

At that spot on his nexus I flashed back to a moment in 2017, jumping straight from the present time and from my location at the museum.

That's when I took this snap.

Mi amiga Sandy and I had arrived at Myrtle Beach for our New Year's vacation, to find the highs in the 50's.

Nonetheless, we'd taken a walk along the boardwalk.

That's when I spotted these diverse geometric shapes and captured them on (digital) film and on my memory.

Nice time travel trip!

Back in the present again, I concentrated on continuing my journey to other images he had captured.

This was the next that stopped me. 

Why on Earth had he taken a photo of a dumpster and a target practice sheet and that white gate left ajar???

It was absolutely -because- of all the disparate items that he had paused in 2020 to snap it.

Very nice!

And, justthatfast, without clicking my heels or even snapping my fingers, I was sent back in time again. 

I don't recall the exact year, but it was between 2008 and 2010, with this new/old addition to my sunroom.

My BFF and her family had been down from the ATL.

I'd just had four windows replaced in the house, with the old ones left out in the back yard, waiting to be hauled off.

Sandra Lynn asked if she could have them, as she had a friend who refurbished them into art.

This is the one she brought back on a later visit, the one she and her daughter had made for me.

That piece of paper in the upper right is the note she had included for me.

As Frank had said of his image, "the only thing linking these items together is the frame".

Most def - although mine has loving memories as well for all its contents!

And like a rubber band snapping back in place, I was again in the Jepson.

What else might he have that would bring me a memory for my nexus to align with his?

Indeed, what else besides this limned image of a blind pianist whose music I have enjoyed at several SMFs of the past?

Specifically, I recall seeing Marcus Roberts in 2019.

The first time was April 1, during practice, when I was tending their "green room", and gave him my protein bar, to keep up his energy.

The second time had been four days later, at the performance of a piece he had composed... and the inclusion of whistling just for me!

Ah, such good memories!

Thanks, Frank Stewart, for mirroring my life!

#FrankStewartPhotoChallenge