17th Annual Palo Alto Weekly Photo Contest
Second Place, Peninsula People
"At the Old Soda Fountain"
By Laurie Naiman
About Laurie Naiman
Click on photo for larger image. |
I create images from a variety of subjects that catch my eye. My greatest satisfaction comes from capturing a subject in a way that quietly communicates my joy in discovering irony, humor or nostalgia in everyday situations. "At the Old Soda Fountain" exemplifies this.
It was seen at O'Brien's Candy Store in Kelley Park (historic San Jose), and also illustrates how memories of other images often unconsciously affect our attraction to subjects in the present. Not until I saw this image on my computer monitor did I appreciate its striking similarity to a well-known Saturday Evening Post cover painting by Norman Rockwell entitled "The Runaway," showing a policeman at a soda counter with a young boy who he talked out of running away from home. This evoked memories of my childhood in Toronto, when for a brief time around age 7 or 8 years old, I was a door-to-door salesman of the same magazine when it was about a dime an issue. Sales were not good, so I decided to go into medicine, from which I retired in 2000. Photography and web design keep me busy and happy now.
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