See-Saw explained:

“An established artist edits the photographs of his younger self – I’m delighted to be able to share a sampling of my earlier photography. These come from bodies of work begun when I was “living behind a camera” in small town Ohio. A camera was my sword, my shield, my close companion then, and when I moved out into the wider world.

Photography was a passing interest, at age seven, when Cousin Bill gave me a box camera. At age thirteen it kicked in hard, and from then on was a solid pursuit. I was hooked. I became a kind of local treasure, winning contests with a good eye for composition and a whole lot to learn.

I’ve looked back at some of my earlier work, after four decades as a professional photographer. I chose the period from ages 7 to around 47, and pondered its influence on my contemporary work. I see that I had a fascination with movement as well as light. I see that I developed reflexively and intuitively in capturing the essence of a moment. I see that the innate compositional sense expanded. And so on, all insights giving me a chance to pause and reflect as I go forward in my photographic career.

At the age of 48 a major shift occurred. I found my personal photographic voice. But that’s another story, one that sprung from the early fascination. I see now what I saw back when, as the evolution of my transition into fine art photography.”

Biography:

“Michael Philip Manheim has been a professional photographer since 1969. A chance encounter with photography, at the age of 13, locked him onto a life-long pursuit.” Read more over at Contemporary Works

Mondorama 2000 is a blog featuring a “sélection d’illustrations épatantes et en couleur tirées d’encyclopédie pour la jeunesse des Trente Glorieuses (1945-1975)”

Those instructions are from the book The Boy Mechanic Vol. 2 1000 Things for Boys to Do also available over at ChestofBooks.com and on Amazon. The book was published in 1948 by Popular Mechanics Co. Here is a description of it’s content: “How to construct devices for winter sports, motion-picture camera, indoor games, reed furniture, electrical novelties, boats, fishing rods, camps and camp appliances, kites and gliders, pushmobiles, roller coaster, ferris wheel and hundreds of other things which delight every boy. With 995 illustrations.”

The Player: 1948 : «New York, July 1948. “Young boy tossing a ball on a city street.” Photograph by Cornell Capa, Life image archive.» / Shorpy Photo Archive