A Trip: Paul

About five years ago I critiqued a photograph on PhotoSig. I do not recall the rating I gave the photo but the photographer now says that I gave it a two thumbs down. I’m not sure it was that bad. This critique leads to an exchange of emails and a cyber friendship. A few months ago that photographer, Paul Saltzman, started talking about the two of us meeting somewhere between Houston and New York City for a photoshoot. We talked about meeting in the Ohio/Indiana or possibly the Tennessee/North Carolina area. Paul came up with a project that he thought he would enjoy so the talks evolved into an agreement to meet in North Texas and meander across rural Texas back to Houston.

The original premise of the shoot would be to photograph rural Texas. I had to promise that we would not get anywhere near any large city, just small towns with the thought that we might even hang around in one or two for maybe more than a day. We wanted to do what was necessary to really give us a chance to “document” the flavor of rural Texas and small towns. Of course, this is right up my alley.

Well, the trip didn’t exactly work out that way. As Paul put it, everything went well until he arrived in Tulsa, Oklahoma. When he saw the tall buildings in Tulsa he knew that he was not entering the Texas/Oklahoma of John Wayne. He realized that what he would looking to photograph, some childhood memory, no longer actually existed. In addition, having to put up with a Southern conservative Republican Christian for a whole week was more than he could possibly enjoy. He was not able to put that disappointment aside and it put a major damper on his future enjoyment of the shoot.

We did meet in Wichita Falls on Friday of last week. We shot in Burkburnett, my home town, and Wichita Falls on Friday. Saturday morning we started the trip. The plan was to take five to seven day to get back to Houston. I was in Houston two days later, in my own bed by Sunday night. We did go through some small Texas towns. We even stayed in one. Paul never seemed to be able to regain his enthusiasm so, Sunday about noon in Fredericksburg he broke the news that he was heading straight to Houston. I didn’t find the statement to be a surprise. There was no need to prolong the agony. We were back in Houston by early evening. Paul checked into the Hyatt and dropped me off at home. I called Alcy and the two of us went out to dinner.

I did not find the trip to be totally unproductive. After all these years of correspondence it was good to actually meet and talk to Paul face to face. I regret that he did not enjoy something that I dearly love to do—photographing Texas. I did come home with one photograph which I like very much and quite a few others that I will probably be posting in the future. As those that follow the blog know, I most enjoy photographing people so I did get a few photographs of Paul along the way. This is my Paul Saltzman in Texas series of photographs.

I enjoyed the trip very much and would love to do the same trip again, a little slower. We covered an area of Texas that I have not been into in over forty years, if at all. I would bypass Fredericksburg—total touristia trap, but the rest of the trip held considerable possibilities. I did enjoy the photo ops that we took advantage of but there were so many that were passed by.