Week 40: Portrait Chair

October 5, 2017 – Every year we take a week’s vacation in October to hang out with our 100-year-old building in Winslow Arizona. Why October? The annual Just Cruisin’ car show, of course! Friday the cars roll in, then there’s a Cacklefest–basically a noise contest between the loudest of the loud–and then Friday night they do a burn out contest on 1st street, something you’d never see in California. Saturday is the car show. The entire downtown fills with classic cars, including right in front of our building. I hadn’t expected to make the Portrait Chair at the car show, but then I met John and his 1919 Briggs and Stratton Flyer.

Week 40: Portrait Chair

Either a formal sitting portrait or a re-interpretation of this classic.

Photography your subject sitting in a chair.

John is an absolute charmer. How could he not be? He’s a Kentucky boy, something I’m partial to considering my daddy is one as well. Plus, he’s a snazzy dresser. Next year, he’s going to up his game even more with knickers and argyle socks. Can’t wait to see.

We spent quite a bit of time learning about how John came to own this unique machine. His passion is infectious. He kindly sat for me to make his portrait, and he took one of me as well.

“About the car: This motorized buckboard has a 2-horsepower Briggs and Stratton motor powering a rear-mounted, fifth wheel. … You slow it two ways: by moving a lever, which picks the fifth wheel off the ground, or by pressing the brake pedal, which presses the rear fenders against the tires.”

—From the Chicago Tribune

Some other pics from the car show and the trip home…

We left Winslow around 3 am Sunday morning. Brian drove. I slept. He did wake me up for Sunrise just outside of Seligman. The light was gorgeous.

Until Next Week’s Landscape Get High…

LATER GATORS!