Stern Man with Bible Against Absurd Backdrop, Antique Tintype Portrait blue birds watercolor nailing a tiny squirrel in

nailing a tiny squirrel in the first tree)

making it feel all the more a special object

really--this airborne donkey looks

and holes in the figure's (very large) hands allow one to turn him all the way around

South Africa and New Zealand

Stern Man with Bible Against Absurd Backdrop, Antique Tintype Portrait blue birds watercolor nailing a tiny squirrel inWhen I look at photographs it is pretty much all about content, and I do like to imagine what was going on at the moment a photo was taken. This tintype is beautifully crisp and clear, but what I love about it is the absurd juxtaposition between this very sober looking man holding up his bible and the almost Rococo studio backdrop with painted roses (one imagines they were pink) arching over him from one side and emerging again just behind his right