Tuesday, May 15, 2012

still-sound 68. Camera shop



This camera store on Sunset Boulevard reminds me of the camera store my dad used to take me to when I was a little kid.  It was called Larmon Photo.  Morgan Camera Shop appears to be out of business.  It's unlikely Larmon Photo still exists.


My dad was a photographer and would regularly swing by the shop for supplies and visit Mr Larmon.  I'm not sure if that was his name, but I assume so, considering the name of the shop.  I think my dad mostly just liked to chat.  His conversations with Mr Larmon seemed interminable.  I remember enjoying the smell of the store.  A combination of Kodak film and pipe smoke.  Mr Larmon smoked a pipe and the air was usually thick with sweet smoke.  He also had a beard.  Of course.




This is how the inside of Morgan Camera looks.  I pressed my camera right up to the glass door and managed to get a shot in between the bars of the security gate.  The interior looks surprisingly in tact.  Maybe it hasn't gone out of business after all - perhaps it's just always closed whenever I pass by and has unusually scratched-up, graffitied windows.  I imagine this shop to smell of cigarette smoke and fusty old wooden panelling.  Larmon Photo looked nothing like this on the inside.  It was brighter, more plastic, more suburban.  It was in a strip mall next to a deli.  I remember an area in the corner of the shop that was raised by one step.  Like a stage, bordered by a wooden railing and balustrade.  I'm not sure why Mr Larmon required such an area but it's where I would hang out while he chatted with my dad.  Puffing away on his pipe.

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