19th Century Technology in a 21st Century urban setting

William Curtis is a poet I recently had the pleasure to meet at Pritchard Park located in the middle of downtown Asheville. A wanderer and “street poet” of sorts, Mr. Curtis takes on impromptu assignments writing poems on the spot for people he comes across in his travels.

William Curtis is a poet I recently had the pleasure to meet at Pritchard Park located in the middle of downtown Asheville. A wanderer and “street poet” of sorts, Mr. Curtis takes on impromptu assignments writing poems on the spot for people he comes across in his travels.

What initially caught my eye was the obviously antiquated manual typewriter that he was using to conjure up his inspired musings. Not one to pass up an opportunity to capture such moments, I managed to take a few shots just before he noticed me. Explaining to me what he does, I asked if it would be okay to take some photos while he worked on a poem for a woman that was seated next to him. He assured me that it was fine. We parted ways with my promise to send William some of the photos at his behest.

This is a very brief series of the images I captured of William as he toiled to create his art on the fly. I personally felt that the “antiqued” treatment I added lent an appropriate “prosody” to the images. The series ends with William presenting the finished poem to the lady on the bench.

All images © Joe Longobardi. All Rights Reserved. joelongobardiphotography.com/