My first foray into more serious photography beyond a brownie snapshot camera was in 1965. My grandparents lived in New York City and I would frequently visit them and take my camera, an Exa single lens reflex film camera that was about as cheap as they come. I would wander the streets taking pictures of people and things; New York City to a high school sophomore was quite fascinating.
I took this image, developed the film and printed in the darkroom. Tri X was the film. This is a scan of the glossy print so there are some reflections in the image. No processing to the scan.
The Automat was a restaurant where all the food was behind small glass doors. One would put between five cents and a dollar into a coin slot, turn a crank, open the door and place your food on a tray.
My grandfather would take me there as a young child in the 1950s. What a great thing for a kid to do; put the money in the slot. There were 40 of these restaurants in New York City alone. The first one was opened in 1902 by the Horn and Hardart consortium. These restaurants had the first vending machines for food. The last one closed in about 1991 as fast food chains became more popular and more numerous.
So this is an image from the past using old film, an old camera, an old concept, etc.
