LAT : MacArthur Park's Polaroid portraitists are fading away

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Great story in the Los Angeles Times of the Polaroid photographers at MacArthur Park. Read it here.

This reminds me of this elder black gentleman who used to come to PIX to buy Polaroid. He was always sharply dressed and always bought Polaroid 600. After a few times of him showing up, I asked what he did with those Polaroid. Turns out he would go to nightclubs at night and take photos for $10 a photo. Not bad if you think about it. Pack of 20 used to cost $24 bucks so he would make $200 from that. After a while I just started to give him a discount. Kindly old man. I had a feeling he did this as another way to scrap by. I imagine him in the dusky bar down in Crenshaw or Leimert Park asking patrons if they wanted photos. Taking shots of happy folks, married folks, folks on dates, the faces of the community. $10 for a memory. He disappeared after a year. I never knew what happen to him but even today years later I still wonder.

I hope he's doing fine.