Track, etc., Box 15, 1946

Few images from a track event in 1946. From a photographer’s perspective, Joel is learning how to freeze images in motion. This would be perfectly in line with a class objective, and it is a necessary skill for a photographer to grasp all the concepts required to freeze motion.

What is not clear to me is, which camera is Joel using ?

The old Zeiss Trona, with a relatively slow shutter speed, or did he already have a Graflex Super D Press camera. The latter has fast shutter speeds (1/500 to 1/1000th second) available on the rear shutter curtain. This would facilitate sports photography significantly. We don’t know as we don’t have the serial number of the Graflex camera that was sold on the estate sale. (Graflex Super D hit the market in 1941.)

Images below are equally great examples of motion freezing. With the pole vault, one can wait till the athlete reaches apex. This is a little more complicated with dives from a 10ft board.

It appears that in the next images, Joel was called upon to document a school trip to a farm. There’s absolutely no further background to these images, so quite possible that these are unrelated.

The black top/bottom border indicates these negatives were taped down. So they were copies from the original negatives, made on an enlarger or contact printer. I can only assume that these were submitted to an art department as copy.

WIth the next images we definitely enter the “Etc.” zone.

First is an image of a parade. The image is in front of the Fox “California” Theater, currently the Bob Hope theater. At left we have Don Burton, a shoe store, and at right we have Red’s Mecca restaurant. Since Joel at times mixes negatives from one box into another, I was wondering if 1946 was even possible.

Late Gene Wright’s historic Stockton photographic tours place Red’s Mecca in 1950, but further research has shown that they pop up on the E Main street address in both the telephone guide from November 1947 and the 1947 Stockton City directory. And this is equally the case for the Don Burton Shoe Store chain. So somewhere in 1946 is possible for this image.

But I’m at a loss for the next image. Three boys in white on a stage. One microphone and a lot of paper planes all around. Does the answer lie in the logo on the side of the jacket ?

Where, what, who and when ?

That’s it for box 15.

We’ll cover portraits in 1946 next.

Cheers !