This is Phillip Gould holding his photo of Carencro Raceway - he was a photographer/acquaintance when I lived in Lafayette (high school and college - and I was born there)...
I would like to believe that at the age of 15 or 16, I was wiser and more mature than my high school cohorts. I spent much of my free time going on canoeing and backpacking trips with the Sierra Club and the Ozark Society in Lafayette, Louisiana. As such, most of my "friends" were older, in their 20's, 30's, 40's. Reminiscing about my life's photographer/y path this morning - remembering pretty much my first job job. Part-time at Turf Photo Supply - the local camera/photography store about 3 miles from my house. Down Kaliste Saloom Road, through the soybean fields.
My parents bought me my first 35mm SLR (single lens reflex) camera there. A Pentax KM as I recall. It's still in its original beat up old camera bag with a few lenses and accessories in a closet somewhere. I had been using my dad's WWII Argus 35mm viewfinder camera before that. Around the same time I subscribed to the Time-Life book series on photography. The beginning of my self-taught learning the ins and outs. Eventually it was about 15 or 20 books. Nice books. I sold them at a garage sale years ago.
Anyway, that camera purchase led to the part-time job. Behind the counter helping customers get what they came in for. Back in the lab doing black and white developing and printing and proof sheets. Possibly some C41 color negative stuff. For sure some color positive stuff (slide film) - more forgiving chemistry. I think Ned Gutierrez, the proprietor, was teaching me the C41 process/chemistry on an experimental/training basis, but it wasn't until after I graduated that I got a job in a commercial photo lab doing more of that. Really just for a few months.
So the name "Turf Photo", came from Ned's original business - equine photography - or more specifically horse racing photography. Even more specifically, winner's circle photos for the thoroughbred and quarter horse owners to buy and frame and hang on their stable walls. After the race, the winning horse/jockey would pose in front of a painted sign for the particular horse racing track, surrounded by the owner, the trainer(s), family and friends. The prints we would do were 8x10 diptychs - with the posed winner's circle shot at the top, and the "photo finish" at the bottom. Ned had devised a technique to burn in the text of the particulars onto the photo - the track, horse's name, jockey's name, owner, trainer, the date, etc. The people would pay me in advance for the prints and then we would print them later and mail them or whatever. I also did the photo finish for the judges - to verify the winner - "by a nose" or "by a length".
Ned had devised a mechanical motorized camera that spooled large rolls of 135mm black and white film at more or less the exact speed of a running quarter horse - which would freeze-frame the horses at the finish line. There was an elevated booth with a plywood flap door (held open with a stick) at the finish line, facing the track obviously. After the race, I would quickly close the door, pull a thick black curtain across it, and proceed to develop a 24" or so length of the film. Developer, fixer, rinse bath. Maybe there was one other step in there. I forget. Then I would deliver it to the judges for the official winner designation. A few times owners or trainers offered me a few hundred dollars to "make" their horse win on the photo finish. They said "angle the camera or something". I had to tell them it couldn't be done. That for me to take a photo of their horse in the winning position, their horse would have to actually, uh..."be" in the winning position.
So obviously horse racing has been legal in Louisiana for a long time. (fwiw, I was born there, my dad was a geologist for Union Oil Company, moved to New Orleans for elementary school, then Brandon, MS for jr. high, then back to Lafayette in 1974 for high school) Ned had a monopoly on winner's circle and photo finish photography services at the big track in Lafayette - Evangeline Downs. I was the judge's backstretch camera man there - big black and white video camera in a tiny booth sitting way up on top of a tall tower. There was a cable and pulley system through the air over to the clubhouse. I could call on a phone and they would send me over a sandwich and a coke. That whole experience will have to be another story, for another time.
The other tracks were what we called "country tracks". Unsanctioned. Quarter horse races vs. thoroughbreds. Races on Saturdays, and maybe Sundays I guess. Doubtful in deep Catholic south Louisiana. Carencro Downs (a film was made there), Acadiana Downs, and another one west on I-10 toward Lake Charles.
I did that for a couple of years. Maybe a few. Anyway, back to the whole "would like to believe I was wiser..." thing. It never dawned on me then to take the spare minutes between races to walk around the paddocks and do some documentary/street style photography. It was a very interesting scene. All ages. All kinds of joyful interaction/partying going on. All kinds of food and drink. Beer. (so no Sunday races - "blue laws" ya know) Drunkenness. Pretty girls. Grizzled old men. Beautiful horses. Saddles and tack and jockeys and colors. A missed opportunity that I've only just now realized nearly 50 years later. After running across this photographer's photos on Flickr. A FB friend in Argentina.
C'est la vie et laissez les bon temps rouler!
Thanks for reading y'all. Have a good restoftheweek...
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