FROM THE ARCHIVES

Flip, 1980

I came across this photo of my old friend Flip from 45 years ago… Flip and I taught guitar at Roydon Music in Brandon, FL. I was working on my B.A. at the University of South Florida and playing music in clubs at night. Flip was about 15 years older than me but had the attitude of a kid—and I mean that in a good way: curious, playful, always up for an adventure. He was a working musician, and a really good one, but he was seldom serious unless it came to music.

For a while, around 1980, we’d head to Ybor City every Tuesday morning to take pictures. Flip had a nice SLR camera with a big telephoto lens. He’d walk right up to strangers on the street and say, “How you feel, man?”—trying to blend in. I eventually pointed out that his camera and huge lens prevented him from blending in at all.

We’d give ourselves a theme—Mother and child, Evidence of man, Shapes, whatever struck us that day. We walked a lot. Back then, it wasn’t unusual to wander into an abandoned building. That’s where I took this photo of Flip taking a break from walking.