AVERAGE TEMPERATURE OF A REFRIGERATOR

This is a portrait of me as a teenager deep sea fishing. My father had been in the Navy during WWII and Korea and had a strong attachment to the sea. Every vacation we took as a family seemed to revolve around the ocean, fishing, seafood, the beach, etc. We would repeatedly return to the same hotel/motel in Wildwood, New Jersey the same week each year (last week of August before Labor Day).

This portrait of me captures something of my essence as a high school student in the 1970s: hair parted in the middle, aviator style glasses with automatic tint, skinning as hell, and reasonably happy and content.

My father's SX-70 was like a miracle machine to me. Once we got it, that became our camera of choice for vacations, trips, events, etc. The way the camera folded flat and opened upward was always a source of fascination for me. It was clearly built sturdy, meant to last for many years (unlike today's cameras filled with plastic parts galore).

It clearly was an expensive investment and I was somewhat surprised my parents (i.e., my father) decided to splurge to get it. The instantaneous production of the image appealed to him. He absolutely loved to photograph others and give them the pictures. I believe he was early on began to photograph the many children who came through his dental office. He had a cork board in the waiting room of mod style brick building overflowing with Polaroids. The images collected more and more pin holes as time passed and the pictures got arranged and rearranged to allow for new additions. I suspect he normally took two photographs of the kids, one for them to keep and one for his cork board. Usually the kids were smiling, but sometimes they had big tear drops or were completely distressed and upset.

The camera became a part of my father's personality and was a way in which he could quickly connect with people, establish a level of trust and communication, and eventually became a trait for which we teased him. He obsessively wrote ink captions on the images to explain what and where they were taken. Our kitchen cabinets, refrigerator, microwave, etc. were similarly papered with such images much to my mother's chagrin.

this picture has many notes:

front door, foyer and foyer's closet.

kitchen: triangular pantry, desk attached to island, island counter hosts an electric cook range & counter-flow exhaust, counter spaces on both sides, counter bar, one large deep sink below window --window is customised go deep down to the counter surface--. It's pretty cool!

Next to sink is the dishwasher (in place) then space for refrigerator, laundry room (for stack-able front loading washer & dryer), next to it is a large space from ceiling to floor home of a large/deep cabinet as storage for large items, below it is space for a small microwave oven & large/deep (30 inches) electric oven, below is a large pull-out draw for more storage.