I took the train to Boston to visit Rodger Kingston a photographer, collector, and Walker Evans scholar, among other things. We met online recently after I posted my reactions to the Evans show at the UBS gallery in New York. Rodger is a great conversationalist and generous with his time, and I had a most enjoyable stay, however short. While in Boston I met the staff of the Photographic Resource Center and the photography curators at the Museum of Fine Arts. Unfortunately, I couldn’t spend much time in Rodger’s house in Belmont (near Cambridge) because of my rather severe allergy to cats. I actually picked up a face mask at a nearby hardware store so that I could go inside for at least a little while. Fortunately, however, the weather was unusually balmy for late September, and we were able to sit on the back porch, look at photographs, and talk.

The view from Rodger Kingston’s porch

Rodger showed me some of his cibachrome prints featuring pop art imagery not unlike the iconography of Andy Warhol. One picture prominently displaying a Mao poster was particularly vivid. I showed Rodger work prints of my ongoing Lower East Side project. We also exchanged books–my Lost Border and Rodger’s bibliography on Walker Evans. I took the late train back to New York.

Rodger Kingston with his digital camera