4/23/10

UNCLE Joshua


Uncle Joshua always looked like a giant to us kids. He towered above all of us. He had huge feet and then just sort of tapered to a tiny head. He looked taller than all of us even when we grew up. That was...until...we realized Uncle Joshua carried a distortion mirror with him and we were never actually looking at him. See, Uncle Joshua used to travel the country as a carnie back in the early 30s and when the carnival broke up Uncle Joshua got the collection of mirrors, but no pay check. He used it to his advantage to make people thing he was a bigger man than he was.

Click image to see Uncle Joshua even larger.

Okay, I could go on and on with this, but the truth is I haven't a clue. This is from a very large envelope of negatives. I also have the photo album that goes with the negs. There are hundreds of vernacular photo prints and negs making me a happy camper.

When I scanned this my first reaction was "Oh shoot, something is wrong with my scanner! That dude on the left looks distorted!" I checked all the other happy faces for some sort of body parts uniqueness but they all looked normal, including the Shirley Temple look alike in the front. I just don't get that guy with the hat. Okay, I'm sure it's the angle the camera was held, but...but...maybe he really did have huge feet and a peanut head.

2 comments:

  1. When I left my last carnival job they gave me a mirror too! I wish I had gotten his. I got the wide one.
    Anyway, they look like a nice bunch of people.

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  2. Shoot I got the wide one too. Must have been an overstock.

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