Dear John

Published January 9th, 2008 in About my photographs. 0 Comments Edit

Something I truly enjoy is telling the stories behind my photographs. From time to time I will share these stories with you.
Today I want to share the short and ironic story behind “Dear John”

When out West, I like to get up before dawn and photograph the landscape until the sun is up. During one of these mornings in Kansas, I took a breakfast break at a Kansas highway truck stop. Truck stops almost always have very hardy breakfasts. After breakfast I went to the men’s room to freshen up. (At this point you must know that while traveling, my camera equipment, all of it, is NEVER out of my sight).

While in the men’s room I saw this roll of toilet paper sitting on a shelf next to a frosted glass window. What struck me was the elegance of the light washing the tiled wall, the shadows that were created, the overall tonality of the scene, and the gentle fold of the one sheet.

While setting up my camera equipment to photograph this wonderful find, I noticed I was starting to attract the attention of the other occupants who started to gather around. You could imagine the expressions and comments of these big rig cross-country truckers to this guy photographing toilet paper in a truck stop men’s room.

As several of the men were curious about what I was doing I told them that I was an artist from Philadelphia, and started to describe what I found interesting about this still life. As I talked about the light, shadow and composition, they started to understand why I was photographing toilet paper. What I said to them was to imagine that it was a bottle of wine, bread, cheese and fruit on the shelf rather than toilet paper. They not only saw the beauty of the scene, but the irony and humor of the photograph. As they said “you have to be an artist to see something like that.” It was a once in a lifetime exchange.

As to the title: “Dear John.”
While in my darkroom printing the photograph, I was listening to one of my favorite guitarists and song writers, Richard Thompson. The song was titled “Tear Stained Letter.” The lyrics were about a broken hearted lover who received a tear stained letter from the woman of his dreams; telling him she had found another and was ending their love affair: A Dear John.

As I was simultaneously evaluating the quality of the print and listening to the lyrics, there was a moment of synchronicity; the title suddenly occurred to me. I verbalized Dear John. It was perfect, a perfect pun.