Framed or unframed, desk size to sofa size, printed by us in Arizona and Alabama since 2007. Explore now.
Shorpy is funded by you. Patreon contributors get an ad-free experience.
Learn more.
April 1940. A hotel room in Dubuque is the setting for this untitled self-portrait of photographer John Vachon. Medium format acetate negative. View full size.
And that's a vape pen on the stack of books.
In a letter to his wife on April 18, 1940, Vachon complained, "Changing film is a difficult problem, no closets, no light proof toilets. Fear I fogged some under the bed clothes this afternoon."
Source: John Vachon's America, Photographs and Letters from the Depression to World War (Edited, with Introductory Texts, by Miles Orvell)
Hotel rooms a specialty.
So that’s what photographers do when they sleep-walk.
My vote is for timed shutter release, or similar contraption.
Could it be what attaches to the flash from the camera?
That suitcase is worthy of George Bailey, when he dreamed of hopping aboard a tramp steamer and seeing the world.
How about a light meter?
[On the right, yes, but the cord in question is over on the left. - Dave]
Looks like he doesn't believe in traveling light, and we don't even see his photo gear.
It's a little difficult to tell because it's out of the picture's depth of field, but my guess is that the wire shaped contraption on the dresser is a shutter bulb, or at least part of one.
It's not, but then again, what is it?
On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5