MY LIFE POST POSTCARDS

My early schooling was in the sciences. Having all my academics finished by my junior year, I took a major leap and ended up with a degree in painting, minor in photography.Then I went through all the steps of merging art and science. When I first moved to San Francisco, I raised orchids, mostly Paphiopedilums, to use in my photos. The pieces would almost always consist of two shots, one different than the other. Often the difference was in the moving flower at the tip of it’s long stem in one, and in the other photo totally still. Other combination still lifes would involve objects moved or from a different angle or with different lighting or even having the camera intentionally moving in one of the shots.

That was a long time and three moves ago, I don’t even know where the negatives are. I do still have some Wallgreen’s 4X6’s in an album or two. Enlargement prints have made their way across the country.

To earn money, I was a gardener and window display craftsman. I always had an eye for style and even had a newspaper article about me. Then I got the color “xerox” and mail art crazes and started doing one of a kind postcards with my wry wit and wordplay stemming from years of reading “Mad Magazine” as a kid. But as the demand grew, I literally burnt myself out on one of a kind postcards.

I’m back to photo’s again, singles this time, a senior citizen, and often using orchids and now jungle cactus flowers which I also grow outdoors, as well as all the wonderful treasures from San Francisco's everyday life.

oneofacard Michael May