A Dying Art
by Mary Lamb Photos
by Mary Lamb Photos
I always walk by Carlo's Salon de Barbier on my way to and from school and look in at the men sitting on the couches at the window. When my boyfriend decided he needed a haircut I suggested that he go there. As my boyfriend had his hair cut by Carlo (older man and shop owner) I looked around and found incredible personality and artistic value in the mix of the outdated 90’s hairstyle photos, the classic chairs, Christmas decorations and their personal stations. There was an overwhelming sense of beauty in the tacky yet classic decor of the shop. One of the barbers, Mohammed, was quite the jokester and sprayed perfume on my boyfriend. Carlo told him to stop and not angrily but very seriously said “People can sue you for that”. This is when I decided to return with my camera. The next morning I returned and asked if I could take some photos of the place for school. Mohammed said “Ya!” ushered me inside and posed next to his station. I sat for 4 hours taking photos of the shop and customers. I tried to take a mix of detail and person shots because only together could I represent the shop appropriately.
The name of this series is A Dying Art. I chose this after a customer at the barbershop mentioned how barbershops are a dying art. This statement summed up exactly how I felt about Carlo’s place and I find it interesting that I was capturing a dying art through a dying medium. I found black and white photos of the shop from years ago tucked in with Carlo’s personal station decorations. I hope that it will continue to stay open even after Carlo is gone. I hope someone has the chance to look back at my photos of the shop and feel the way I did about the black and white images.
The lighting was dim tungsten with a few fluorescent lights down the middle of the ceiling. I chose to print the photos with a warm cast. I find that it is truer to the feeling of the shop and expresses a ‘period’ type feel. My negatives were damaged during processing and although you can't really tell from these compressed scans there are some very small bluish/white specs in a few of the photos.
The name of this series is A Dying Art. I chose this after a customer at the barbershop mentioned how barbershops are a dying art. This statement summed up exactly how I felt about Carlo’s place and I find it interesting that I was capturing a dying art through a dying medium. I found black and white photos of the shop from years ago tucked in with Carlo’s personal station decorations. I hope that it will continue to stay open even after Carlo is gone. I hope someone has the chance to look back at my photos of the shop and feel the way I did about the black and white images.
The lighting was dim tungsten with a few fluorescent lights down the middle of the ceiling. I chose to print the photos with a warm cast. I find that it is truer to the feeling of the shop and expresses a ‘period’ type feel. My negatives were damaged during processing and although you can't really tell from these compressed scans there are some very small bluish/white specs in a few of the photos.
