Ralph Baker, (refusing to be) Blind Photographer
11th Sep 2005, 05:21 GMT
There is no other way to put it. Ralph Baker, street photographer, is simply not your average kind of guy. He lives in what he calls his "spaceship," a green-housed, alternative, post-apocalypticish living space wedged snugly between two Williamsburg residential/commercial buildings. Ladders connect "floors" together. There's the gadget filled "engine room" in the basement, his winter-proofed, multi-down-comforter-laced bedroom, and a cozy combination living room/kitchen area that tops the three-story iron-grated assemblage. Con-Ed supplies his gas and Verizon supplies his phone service. I have known Ralph for five years now. We lived in the same building back in 2000/2001 and he would often wander by my loft - a loft he helped build - and show me with obvious relish his new digital cameras, his state of the art portable printers and - squinting through thick lensed glasses - the fruits of his trade, 8 x 11 or 5 x 7 pictures of nostalgically-frozen smiling tourists at Rockefeller Center or Times Square. But it's a bit strange these days to talk to Ralph. He won't meet your gaze, even as he'll meet your mind, and he alternates, as he always did, between smart-assed, but good natured, cynicism and almost delusionally optimistic idealism. Always ready with a smile, possessed of an almost zen-like placidity, one might be forgiven for thinking Ralph crazy. Afterall, at least until recently, Ralph has continued to ply his street photography trade although the NYPD has arrested him, by his own estimation, in excess of 100 times since 1966. Afterall, five years subsequent to our first meeting, this photographer's glasses are put aside. He doesn't need them anymore. The first time he'll know what I have written about him will be tomorrow or the day after when somebody reads it to him. Because, afterall, Ralph is now almost completely blind and insane enough, through pride, hope, optimism, idealism or self-love - choose any or all of the above - to think he can still live his life like a man who sees.