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From the Vault of Art Shay: On Editing a Photo

By Art Shay in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 26, 2011 9:20PM

Last Sunday, my friend Josh "Birdman" Murphy (whose daytime job is trading money in markets all over the world from a one by one square foot patch at the Board of Trade Building) took his phone camera and his current favorite mini with us for a picture walk around the teeming Botanical Gardens.

His eye used to jump all over the place, probably springing from his hobby of long-range bike riding. Being a good guru I've gotten him to focus on the little things - the chess players in the game, not the overall strategy - and like all good learners he's making me proud.

He weighs 200 pounds but his bike, made out of space metal, is a mere 16 pounds. His phone camera and new Fuji are so small, they don't attract the spectators and the questions I used to get when showing myself in public with the latest tools of the candid trade. Now that you can hide cameras in plain sight, who needs briefcases anymore? Or cameras in tie-clasps, or to use 4-frame-a-second Robots made in Ulm, Germany, a factory I bombed with a tear in my eye.

Architect Mies van der Rohe is associated with the expression "less is more." What he really meant was less is really more: it's one of the few modern aphorisms that can stand alone.

When Josh sent me his picture of his brave little four-year-old high-fiving it with the 7-foot weird monster with painted face, I couldn't get it out of my mind. It said something. But what?

I think it was the kid's feisty expression - the heartiness with which he met the world as presented him in the mere 1,460 or so days he's been alive.

It was the look of Man daring the Unknown. Of Bravery. Of that spark of human curiosity and "what the hell" that distinguishes us from the other outstanding children on the page. That big-muscled, big-balled chimp at rest. He ain't gonna change the world no how.

But the little guy! My hero! I just noticed his Superman outfit in time for Halloween, perhaps bought by a mom or dad who recognized certain undaunted qualities in their little man of a son!

He's caught by Josh being quintessentially human! Daring the strange monster to meet him on human terms- and we'll take it from there.

As an editor - and all pros of all kinds are editors - I had no hesitation leaving out the stilt-man's face and smile... the picture was in the little man's reaction to the giant who had suddenly appeared in his path.

He represented the very best in all of us! The kind of kid we should send out, minus the bureaucratic horseshit, to meet the first extra-terrestrials!

If you can't wait until this time every Wednesday to get your Art Shay fix, please check out the photographer's blog, which is updated regularly. Art Shay's book, Nelson Algren's Chicago, is also available at Amazon.