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Portrait
29 March 2017
The other evening we stopped in a little bar we have been frequenting for years where we usually have the shrimp louie and a glass of white wine for lunch. It's not a fancy place but the people there all know each other.
Portrait. Shot with an iPhone 6 Plus, edited in Photoshop CC.
This fellow, for example, came in and before sitting at the bar bought a round of drinks for a few people he knew. Then he sat down by himself at the end of the bar where he ordered a burger. That's the kitchen door in the middle of the frame.
The Warriors were playing at Oracle on the big TV to his right. We took the shot during a commercial break.
It's dark in the bar, of course, but the walls of the place are illuminated by various small light fixtures whose glare falls on all sorts of sports memorabilia.
On the wall opposite us there was a photo of Buster Posey running out to congratulate Matt Cain on his 2012 no-hitter. Cain had signed the print.
And the wall you can see in the photo is full of portraits -- some photos, some drawings -- of all the 49er stars from the Super Bowl teams.
If you look carefully, you can see some bowling trophies on a shelf in the top left corner. And on the bar in the back are a few bottles people often show a particular allegiance to.
We caught our subject while he was looking down for a moment and just as the flatscreen flashed a big "WE."
Put all that together and you have an environmental portrait.
We don't know the man in the photo and don't pretend it's a portrait of him. In fact, he's portrayed anonymously from the back. He's more of a model playing the role of a guy alone in a bar having a burger with all these group identities floating around him suggesting that, well, he isn't really alone.
Been there, of course. And it felt just like this looks. Lonely.