The Swimmer ... In Three Chapters

In 1945,  Peter Stackpole
photographed Lyn Jones.
I wish I was there.

Kurt Vonnegut  once said 

In the water, I am beautiful.

Obviously, he is not the only one.

Paul Schutzer photographed
Philomene Toulouse 

at the 1962 Cannes 

Film Festival. 

She is seen here with her pet fox 

and an admirer.

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Where is Otto Jensen when I really need him?

Peter Stackpole and Paul Schutzer were both Time-Life photographers.
The evidence above speaks for the quality of their work.

I have no doubt that Otto Jensen's photographs also appeared
in Time Magazine or Life Magazine. 

The only person who could verify that is the other half of "Jensen Studios."
But Marie Jensen died  six years ago. She was ninety-three years old.

On June 5, 1967, Paul Schutzer was killed in the Middle East
at the age of thirty-seven. 

It was the first day of the Six-Day War.

Both Mr. Schutzer and Mr. Jensen photographed Richard Nixon.
Both photographed actresses but Otto's stunning headshot
of Jayne Mansfield was taken somewhere in Burbank.

I last saw it in Otto's studio office–in 2004–
alongside a photo of actress May Britt.

By 2006, both photos were missing and the photographer
had no idea what came of them.

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The girl in this "second generation"

photograph died at the age 

of twenty-eight. 

The original photographer was either 

her mother or father. 

 
 

Sometime during the last decade 

of the last century, my friend 

and mentor, Otto Jensen, 

was responsible for 

expertly enlarging 

this 2"x 3" family 

heirloom photo. 

He made me multiple copies 

which can be found somewhere 

in my Long Beach condo. 

But rather than find one of them...

I most in-expertly re-photographed 

the original snapshot.

But all things happen for a reason. 

The obscene white blur that obscures the swimmer's right leg forms 

a straight line through the bathing-capped child at the shore line. 

At the other end of that line is an insect-sized thing in an inner-tube.

Compared to photographers Stackpole, Schutzer, and Jensen,
the little boy in the inner tube has no objection
to defining himself as a "thing." 

That boy was–and still is–the greatest admirer
of the swimmer walking across the sand.

He feels exactly the same way about the mother and father, 

either of whom originally photographed Linda Oliverio. 

My sister wasn't smiling for the camera for a simple reason: 

swimming in Rocky Point was a very intense exercise for her.

That boy is now all of sixty-three years old and has outlived

everyone mentioned in this post. 

Unless, of course, either Philomene Toulouse
or Lynn Jones magically appear at my door.