Wayne's first 35mm photos

Going through some old files last week I ran across this series of photos that I took with my very first 35mm camera. It was a used Agfa that served me well for a number of years......simple but useful. And naturally we always shot in Kodak Tri-X film to get the very best shots and we always processed our own film in my kitchen sink with Peter's chemicals and made our own prints on a big cumbersome enlarger in the basement.


These photos were taken on the streets of Columbus, Indiana, where I had my first job out of college. The year was 1960 - forty-six years ago - damn near a half-century. I worked in the ad department of the Columbus Evening Republican and did some free-lance writing on the side for the paper.
I was in a new town and found everything a little exciting and entertaining......My friend Peter McGinnis was the son of a local real estate broker and one of my advertising accounts for the paper. We hit it off and he introduced me to his love - photography. (In this first photo you can see the reflection o my pride and joy, a 1957 Ford convertible in the reflection).
The area was where all the town's bars, liquor stores and pool halls were located...not a skid row, but just a cut above.


The interaction between the denizens of the area was fascinating. Although we were sitting in my car just at the curb, no one seemed to notice or care that we were photographing them.


Can't you just imagine what his guy is telling his wife, with child in tow, that he was doing in the bar or had to do in the bar.....my dad's excuse was always "gotta see a man about a dog."


And this happy lady getting ready to join the gang in the bar for a little social chit chat.


And then of course there is the new generation either looking for dad or getting ready to follow in his elder's footsteps.