More precisely, 1958 through 1995, so not quite 40 years. For my face, in 8 shots, the last two providing more of my body as well. Today just the visuals, with little commentary, beyond locating the photos in time, place, and occasion. (My day was consumed by labors of an non-writerly sort. Not at all unpleasant, though mighty sweaty, but unexpectedly time-consuming.)
#1. Spring 1958, my high school yearbook photo. Crewcut, Alpine nose, weak chin, “pretty eyes” (or so the girls told me), nice smile.
(#1) The photo in which I come closest to resembling my mother rather than my father and grandfather
#2. Fall 1958, photo for the Freshman Herald for the Princeton class of 1962. Retooled for the Ivy League, and (I believe) altered by the photographer to make me look more masculine. At the photographer’s direction, unsmiling and with glasses — to look more serious.
(#2) And then the sleepy eyes; my eyelids do this unless I consciously hold my eyes open for the camera
(#3) Summer 1972, with Ann Daingerfield Zwicky visiting family friend Ann Winn in Lexington KY (the two Anns and everybody’s bourbons from this photo).
(#3) Zwick the Slick; in the late 60s, I added the beard to bulk out my chin, and I’ve kept it ever since
#4. At “graduation day” (spring 1982) for the 1981-82 fellows of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (Tamara Hareven and Preston Cutler cropped from the photo):
(#4) Nice guy, big nose, really sleepy eyes
#5. Winter 1986, in the Stanford main quad, on my beginning my first winter as visiting professor at Stanford, photo for the departmental display of faculty and staff.
(#5) I hate having my picture taken, but the grad student who was assigned the task of cajoling the photo out of me did a nice job of it, I think (she got me talking about the classes I was teaching); gray hair setting in, more amiable glasses, only mildly sleepy eyes
#6. Winter 1991 (or a winter very close to that), at Macy’s men’s store in Union Square in San Francisco, wearing a beautiful scarf that I’d just bought there. Or maybe later that day, at some soc.motss event. Photo by Tony Hartman (a serious photographer, partner of Steve Dyer, who created the Usenet newsgroup net.motss, which became soc.motss, which eventually supplied me with a huge family of lgbt-folk and their friends).
(#6) Grayer still, a different pair of amiable glasses, big smile, eyelids held open (and the nose is less obtrusive in front shots like this one, versus side shots like #4); #5 and this one were my go-to pictures for many years (I can no longer pretend to be this young)
#7. AZ as hunk (well, small-boned hunk), in Jacques’s and my Palo Alto living room in January 1993, at an ad hoc gathering of some soc.motss-folk.
(#7) Lean and hairy, lightly muscled; soc.motss sleveless tee, beautiful surfer shorts from an actual Santa Cruz County surf shop
#8. More AZ as hunk, September 1995, at a party during the motss.con — the annual soc.motss con — that year at a hotel in DC.
(#8) This time in an OUT In Linguistics t-shirt, looking very happy — it was a wonderful party — and about as fey as I ever look (absorbing good gay vibes from Gadi Niram, whose hand you see on my shoulder, and who was wearing a truly wonderful dress)
Tomorrow: some commentary.
May 21, 2022 at 4:31 pm |
#5 is the first one to which my reaction is “Hey! I know that guy!”