Paul Goldfinger photograph. Oak Bluffs, Mass. Martha’s Vineyard. August 1997. Silver gelatin darkroom print by PG.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
Eileen and I were visiting Oak Bluffs in the summer of 1997. We were exploring when we found ourselves in the small campground that had been celebrating Illumination Night since the 19th century. Their history is very much like Ocean Grove’s including Methodist founders, tents and then cottages. And they have a Tabernacle.
The houses are very cute; visitors like to come in August when cottages are decorated for two weeks. The cottages are very small, and there was never any attempt to commercialize their village. There’s no room for cars.
These days they have three Illumination Night traditions: kids in costumes, sing-a-longs in the Tabernacle and a turning on the lights ceremony.
We were standing in the back of the Tabernacle that night in August, 1997–don’t recall what was going on, but we both remember the little girl who was sitting on her father’s shoulders. She looked at me, and I snapped one frame with my always-ready 35 mm camera.
Her appearance and body language seem sad. Yet it is a happy event. Whenever I look at it, I wonder what was going on with her. Maybe she just wanted an ice cream; or maybe something else, like blowing pretty bubbles in the air.
DAN LEVINSON’S ROOF GARDEN JAZZ BAND: