Photo Project: Day 9

Posted by Melissa Baumgart

The smoking man, Day 9.

 Last night at 7:20, I could find nothing worth photographing.  I looked everywhere around my apartment, and took a number of photos.  There was nothing inspiring, or artsy about any of them.  No stories.  No life lessons lurking through the iPhone lens.

Then, about 10 minutes later I decided to try again.  So what if it was past 7:20!  I felt like such a rebel, breaking my own self-imposed rules.  I looked out the window, and there he was, the "smoking man."  There is this guy that lives across the street and he consistently comes over in front of our apartment to smoke...even after being asked not to.  Mostly he sits on the bench our neighbors put out front and puffs away.  Other times he has been known to lie upon the grass and smoke, propping himself up with one arm or flat on his back gazing upwards to the sky.

My best attempt from 7:20 pm, a pile of matched socks.

He often looks sad.  I am so curious about him.  I want to know his story.  But still, I don't go and ask.  In a way, I like having peculiar people around me.  I get to make up my own stories, write little novellas in my mind about their life.  Thank you, smoking man, for keeping my creative mind limber.