The Picture Behind a Picture
David Michael Newstead | The Philosophy of Shaving |
Yesterday, I was in a frenzy of photo scanning. I was going through a huge pile of film prints, envelopes, and folders from various family members with their own unique snapshots from over the years. Scanning everything had been one of my long postponed pandemic projects, but it turns out it’s pretty easy to delay doing that indefinitely. As you might have noticed, the pandemic ended a while back. In any case, once I got going I made a lot of progress, systematically scanning these forgotten photos. One, however, forced me to pause. There was a small framed picture of my brother and his friends in high school, but nothing else before that that day had been framed. Stranger still, the back of this cheap, wooden frame had been papered over and glued, so this specific photograph probably hadn’t been removed in decades. Examining the thing, I quickly resolved to tear up the back and pry the picture out. That’s when I found it. Between the paper covering and the photo, there was a plain piece of cardboard backing held in place by movable staples. So, I moved them! Hidden from view, the other side of the cardboard had a surprisingly nice landscape on it. I was confused if that had always been there or if it was someone’s long lost art project. I don’t think I’ll ever know the answer to that one. For years, this picture frame was proudly displayed on a shelf, photo facing out, and landscape obscured. Then for even more years after that, the whole thing just sat in a box. I guess most photos end up that way even if they’re digitized. But for whatever reason, I felt some special attachment to this meaningless piece of art. It was simple and colorful and buried for so long maybe it was now miraculously imbued with greater significance. I scanned it along with the photo it accompanied, then carefully put the little picture frame back together again. I carried on with my work until just about everything was backed up and scanned. I could have thrown the frame away afterwards, but I didn’t. At least, not yet. I like the picture. And the one behind that one too.
