There is an "art car" in every city, even if only the junker you see parked downtown covered with "ouch" stickers and "I brake for (whatever)". However, this mega-tricked beauty seriously rules the road. A 1973 post card with the following caption on the reverse "'52 Pontiac custom features hand-painted seat covers, lots of chrome, years of work. The artist wishes to remain anonymous. Photographed in Houston, Texas 1973. Photo by Chip Lord" The charming dealer I purchased this card from adds "this outsider art automobile has a bumper sticker near the front grill which says "black." The gas station owner's last name was Wilson. Ads for Bardahl and STP seen in the service station. A classic Harris County, roadside America or black Americana collectible in near-mint condition. For black Americana and gas station collectors, it just doesn't get much better than this".
Finally, I would like to add even the doo-dads on the matching raised visors are symmetrical. The driver may be anonymous, but I suspect his name might be "Flash". This ride might struggle to reach cruising speed, but I would pay $500 just to drive it around the block and wave and I'd throw in a full tank right after. Automobile manufacturers would like you to think their cars make a "statement". This one clearly says aloud "Kiss My Ass".
Post Card c. 1973 Collection Jim Linderman
A photo of a financial transaction. I tagged this blog with the word "sex" simply to generate traffic...surely 15 years of the internet has shown nothing works better at directing peepers to a website. Furtive consumers were often called "pop-eyes" by early "content" providers such as the sleaze merchant who produced this photo. Likely a still taken while a stag film was being made, the pictures were sold under the counter or in the back of magazines in sets of 6 or 8. Obviously, this would have been the first of the set. Photos were much easier to duplicate than the film itself, which would have been lugged around with a projector and shown in make-do venues. I personally remember attending two and I'm not that old, one was screened in a gas station several miles out of the small town I lived in (spread by word of mouth) the other in a dorm room just down the hall my freshman year. Both were shown on tacked up white sheets. This photo is actually much clearer than the films I saw. Fashion folks might date this better than me, maybe 1950. Neither of the participants here seem particularly exploited, but then I wasn't there. Photos of people engaged in illegal activities are interesting. These folks were certainly "acting" the role of hooker and hooked, but then since the act of filming same was probably against the law at the time, this would be a photo of a crime depicting a fake crime, though they did certainly carry on with the scene being negotiated for the sake of the camera. This is an "original" but there were certainly thousands of it made. In 1957, the New York Times reported on the arrest of two women with 50,000 copies of 3000 different negatives.
2.5 x 3.5 vintage photograph collection Jim Linderman.
Who can argue with this? I would feel pretty safe in his hands too, Jesus appears to be quite capable of carrying anyone to safety. Richmond, Virginia "Jesus is the only fire escape"
Original 35mm photograph c. 1993 Collection Jim Linderman
The first photo is remarkable for several reasons, not the least of which is that it shows a blind double amputee Native American woman propped up against a board (!) As a person once said to me "yep, she got her legs shot off" to be blunt. I am posting it as a "rest in peace" for Polaroid, who recently filed bankruptcy for the second time and this time there will be no squirming out.Believe it or not, these photographs were produced with instant film circa 1915.These are Mandelette direct-positive photo postcards taken by a camera which had it's own developing tank. Mandelette camera users were able to take instant photographs and produce a unique image directly on a flimsy card stock suitable for mailing. (These were foolishly imprinted with the Mandel logo right where the stamp went, one reason these are hard to find today...who would encourage consumers to block out the logo on their own product?) A fairly large and clunky apparatus, the camera was used most frequently on a tripod by street photographers who would load it with pre-printed postcard backs (as shown) and sell them to passerby. They worked poorly. As the machine could only produce one unique direct-positive image, like a tintype, the images were usually dark and blurred as seen in the equally unusual early motocycle riders here. Consequently, the camera lasted only a few years. Polaroid, on the other hand, was able to hang on a bit longer.Three unique Mandel Real Photo post cards, 2.5" x 3.5" and 3" x 4.5", circa 1915 Collection Jim Linderman
The Rev. Elbert Simpkins Prair House and Healing Church, a sign which made me glad to be wearing a seatbelt. The technique of squeezing letters together for appearance or "to fit" is known as kerning. The practice of reversing letters is known as, well...writing backwards. Children who write like this often worry their parents, but the youngsters usually figure things out and dyslexia seldom results. Da Vinci wrote letters backwards in his notebooks to protect secrets. I could not find a software program which reverses letters at random for you (which would be known as digital illiteracy) but there are plenty of folks asking how to do it in forums. This two- sided sign graced a small church in Mississippi. I doubt the Reverend is still keeping hours, but you could try the number.Original 35 mm photographs, c. 1992 Collection Jim Linderman
From time to time I intend to post my vacation photos. Don't expect to see anyone parasailing. This is the house of Royal Robertson in Baldwin, LA. He called himself "The Prophet" but the trash collector I stopped and asked for directions called him "that weird guy with all the signs". You can just make out Mr. Robertson in the doorway inviting me back anytime. If he knew portions of his environment were now in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Museum of American Art...I don't think it would register, actually. He lived until 1997, I took these photos long before that. He married Adell Brent in 1955, but it didn't work out.Two original photographs 35mm c. 1990 collection Jim Linderman
