Art I'm Making: "Curious Boy" (c. 1975)

Over the last two days, I finally got around to cleaning up my photographic darkroom (which has morphed into a wine cellar) and I think I've now got it to a state that will allow the wine and the photo equipment to co-exist. I'm looking forward to putting the equipment to use again.

While cleaning and straightening, I found the negative for this photo, which I remember having titled "Curious Boy." I made this photograph when I was 15. I vaguely recall winning an honorable mention for it in a contest. The image was made on a bus in Dayton, Ohio, c. 1975. It's on Kodak Plus-X film. At the time, I would have been using a Yashica TL-Electro. Two years later, I had graduated to an Olympus OM-2, a camera that I still have and use occasionally. 

Seeing the image now, I'm a little disappointed that the boy's face isn't more crisply focused, but this was done before auto-focus was a thing. It was a fleeting moment. The boy turned around. I lifted my camera and pushed the shutter button. I probably had only a second to adjust the focus if I had any time at all.