chuckography

"Life Imitates Art..." Oscar Wilde

So, I was reading the paper a few days ago and thought B.C. was funny.

Even funnier when I walked out front to see what all the noise was about.

Yikes. My neighbor was having her roof done. Yes...a metal roof.

I remembered the Oscar Wilde quote right away. "Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life," Wilde had stated.

Apparently they had just positioned the first sheet on the roof at the front of her house

I had a front row seat to watch the Roof Doctor crew from Ladson.

In keeping with the black & white nature of the cartoon, I converted this picture to just two colors.

The neighbor explained her decision to re-roof with black metal panels. Huh? I had taken a few photos before I realized the material was black.

But I was already visualizing how these pictures would look in high contrast non-color.

When I first got into photography, black and white was the norm and color was not something you would try to develop at home.

I made a darkroom at home back in the 1950s when I was in high school.

Before that, I was a regular customer, dropping off rolls of film at Walgreens downtown.

Wait a week and come back for your prints.

When I graduated from Bishop England high school, I was working at Norvell's Camera Exchange on the corner of Calhoun and King.

We sent all the color processing to Kodak in Chamblee, Georgia but Harold Norvell had a B&W darkroom built upstairs in the Francis Marion Hotel.
OK, my neighborhood is actually in color.

Here's a view later in the day as the guys on the roof followed directions from the foreman on the ground.

Still can't tell the panels are creating a shiny black roof.

I went online to see if there was any link still existing for the Camera Exchange where I sold cameras and equipment in 1957.

I did find a recent article that mentions another Charleston photographer's experience with the store and Mr. Norvell.

Click the link and check it out. It's written by my friend Jason Zwicker.

(Click on the photos for more details.)

I hope I am crediting the B.C. cartoon properly.

Thanks for stopping by. Please come again.

The new roof really is black!

Labels: B.C. by Mastrianni & Hart, Eddie Toporek, Francis Marion Hotel, Harold Norvell, Jason Zwicker, Norvell's Camera Exchange, Roof Doctor of Ladson, Signature Photography, Tin Roof

posted by chuckography @ 7:33 PM