Cole Thompson

[ 0laughs] Good, thank you, Scott.

Thank you.

[laughs] Nah, I'm-

My guy

... doing well.

[laughs] Wonderful.

And I am looking forward to it.

So first of all, I'm a fan.

You, and, and we're gonna get to the individual images in a bit.

But my Lord, what, what you have come to understand about black-and-white photography is just really, really special.

But I, I wanna go back, you know, as, as is, you know, pr- pretty common, uh, to the origin story.

And, you know, normally I get one of three answers when I say, "How does ph- you know, did photography come into your life?" Either somebody was given a camera and they really loved shooting, um, or, you know, some high school darkroom class, and there's, you know, the little tray of HD 110 and an image pops up, uh, and they think, "Oh, you know, this is great." Or they fall in love, uh, with the gadget.

You know, just, just the mechanics of a camera.

You, you're 14 years old.

You're out hiking in the woods.

You come across an old ruin that you discover has, you know, got a connection to John Eastman.

You go get his bio, and you start reading it.

And before you have ever pressed the shutter release, you decide you're gonna be a photographer.

So okay, walk me through that more slowly.

First of all, why were you interested in the ruin? What did Eastman say in, in his biography that turned you on? And, and what grabbed your soul at that time?

Well, first understand I lived in Rochester, New York in '68, and Kodak ruled the waves back then.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, it was synonymous with the word photography, Kodak.

And so to find this old home that he had once lived in, I believe, just kinda piqued my interest.

So I, uh, went to the school library, checked out the biography.

[ 0laughs] Good, thank you, Scott.

Thank you.

[laughs] Nah, I'm-

My guy

... doing well.

[laughs] Wonderful.

And I am looking forward to it.

So first of all, I'm a fan.

You, and, and we're gonna get to the individual images in a bit.

But my Lord, what, what you have come to understand about black-and-white photography is just really, really special.

But I, I wanna go back, you know, as, as is, you know, pr- pretty common, uh, to the origin story.

And, you know, normally I get one of three answers when I say, "How does ph- you know, did photography come into your life?" Either somebody was given a camera and they really loved shooting, um, or, you know, some high school darkroom class, and there's, you know, the little tray of HD 110 and an image pops up, uh, and they think, "Oh, you know, this is great." Or they fall in love, uh, with the gadget.

You know, just, just the mechanics of a camera.

You, you're 14 years old.

You're out hiking in the woods.

You come across an old ruin that you discover has, you know, got a connection to John Eastman.

You go get his bio, and you start reading it.

And before you have ever pressed the shutter release, you decide you're gonna be a photographer.

So okay, walk me through that more slowly.

First of all, why were you interested in the ruin? What did Eastman say in, in his biography that turned you on? And, and what grabbed your soul at that time?

Well, first understand I lived in Rochester, New York in '68, and Kodak ruled the waves back then.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, it was synonymous with the word photography, Kodak.

And so to find this old home that he had once lived in, I believe, just kinda piqued my interest.

So I, uh, went to the school library, checked out the biography.