What Collins Saw

On the black sand beach of Batuputi in northeast Sulawesi, Indonesia

Caretaker, cabins on the Italian coast

Street vendors by street light in León, Nicaragua, 2015.

After midnight in Old Havana, 2000.

Havana, Cuba, 2000, a '57 Plymouth and an hombre Habanero

Havana, Cuba, 2000

2015: Kids living along the Rio Sábalos, Nicaragua, washing up in the river.

The night beach; there is a couple right rear

Essaouira , Morocco

old town Havana December 2000 Olympus Stylus rangefinder. Hand-held!

A bather returns to his horse from the Rio Sábalos in Nicaragua.

Street children sniffing glue in the hills above Tegucigalpa, 2000

Indigenous Saraguran on his horse in Saraguro, Ecuador, 1992.

Florence Italy 2001 In the Medici Palazzo

A saint sleeps forever in a church in Florence, Italy

In Lucca, Italy, a boy and his scooter

Galeras, Dominican Republic, March 2020

Timeless pleasures for the boys living along the Rio Sábalos in Nicaragua.

THE MOROCCAN Tea House 2011

spice merchant, Essaouira, Morocco, 2011

Asleep among the Medicinal Plants : Morocco, Perhaps Essaouira 2011

The old prison, Tegucigalpa 2016

On a ride through the night streets of Tegucigalpa

Somewhere in Manhattan. Just suspended, doing their work.

Foggy Morn,

Highway 91, NEK, Vermont

A very healthy young donkey with very long ears, & a shiny line of barbed wire as the sun goes down in Brownington VT

Enterprise For A Slow Day: A pedestrian proceeds from the sunshine into the darkness under the railroad bridge over Southbridge Street, Worcester, MA

Worcester Massachusetts 2006

Juan Dolio, east of Santo Domingo, Hispaniola (DR) March 2020

In Juan Dolio DR March 2020

Pride Day in Worcester: parade travels from Institute Park to the city hall common. Here Nikita La Femme, Worcester, who won the Miss Diva Massachusetts competition this year, passing city hall and a handful of protestors from the Worcester Bible Church.

07 04 08 Worcester MA:Summer Nationals Car Show ::A purple chevy convertible sits in place with its rear wheels spinning until a tire blows or the driver gives up! Fun at the summer national burnouts.

Brazilian Americans heading back to Framingham, where they live, following their competition in the bull-riding events at the DCU center, Worcester 

Independence Day Parade in Millbury MA::Carrie XXXXX sits by the Central Diner on Elm Street and waits for the parade to come into view. June 2010

Fellers checking out a restored circa 1950 Ford Ferguson tractor for sale in Palmer, MA

At a gas stop in Windsor VT Monday oct 19. 2020

On the highway approaching Jasper, Alberta

Worcester, MA, Outside the Hotel Vernon, with a view of Kelley Square, bar patrons take in smoke and the night air.

A pair of friends shares lunch at Derrico's diner in Worcester MA beneath a heart-shaped Valentine's Day message.

In front of City Hall, Worcester, Massachusetts 2001

At the annual chili festival in Gardner MA, 1998

2008 at a farm in Mina Gerais Brazil, the sky reflected in a swimming pool.

In a front yard after the rain, in the Playa Negra region of Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica

The Great American Chemical factory on the Nashua River, on fire in Fitchburg, MA in October 1997

Looking West from Beech Hill, NEK Vermont

01 10 21

Waterfall in Cerro Azul National Forst, Honduras

In Coventry, in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, July, 2014

Corn Stubble, Northeast Kingdom Vermont March 2020

Morning fog fills the low areas among the hills of Albany and Lowell, VT , October 2019.

Green River Reservoir August 29 2018

Morning on the black sand beach of Batuputih in northeast Sulawesi, Indonesia .

The shore from above, Bluefields, Nicaragua, 2015

Herding cattle south of Matagalpa, Nicaragua, 2015.

Looking out from Shadow Lake Road, Glover, VT , January 2015.

2005 landscape in East Albany Vermont; this view is today defiled by a score of commercial wind turbines.

Waterfall In Honduras's Cerro Azul National Forest  2009

Classic 3-decker houses on the hill behind Cristoforo Colombo Park, Worcester MA

Hamlet, North Carolina, 1982. Kodachrome daylight film exposed under street lights.

water-sculpted sand at a beach in Paraty, Brazil

Pelicans along the shore of San Diego, Nicaragua, 2015

january 2018, West Glover (I Think) Vermont

Lurid sky Albany november 2020

Utah sundown or sunrise vistal Escalante/Dead Creek area? 1997 road trip SB CCL & JC

At a Camp Meeting in Worcester
County MA in 2000

At the Barton Fair in Barton, Vermont, in 1981, before the girly shows were banned.

A lawn mower pulling contest was held at the Beagle Club in Charlton MA one fine Sunday in the late 20th century.

We Don't Want To Know Department> At the Shock portion of the ROCK AND SHOCK event ("Three Days Of Music Monsters And Mayhem"), at the centrum convention center, Bruce Millet of Lancaster picks up his props to parade before the judges in the costume contest. Millet's Leatherface character from Texas Chainsaw Massacre won best Horror Film character. October 2004

Susanna, Deb, Angie and Quincy on a fine October day in East Fairfield, VT. 2019.

Annual Woodstock Fair: Kennedy Norris,6, Stafford, CT, throws kisses to her family as she whirls around on the carousel; her mother says she's known as the "drama queen" in the family.

Behind the changing rooms at Bell Pond Beach, Lyndsey delights Miguel and embarrasses Elliot while the three friends make it through another Worcester summer afternoon, 2012.

At a boxing match in Worcester MA sometime around the year 2000, the ring girl enters the ring to announce Round 3.

Brilliant messages on t-shirts at the Barton Fair. 2017

A low-blow Argentina-Rocca-style drop kick at a midget wrestling match in Worcester MA in 2000.

A very young man leaves the Army & Navy Store in Northboro, MA wearing his soldierly purchases, followed by his dad. The store's resin statue is of a WWII U.S. G.I.

Blake Shelton concert, Indian Ranch 2010?

A photographer for a bodybuilders' magazine takes some shots of a contestant in a Mister Massachusetts contest in Worcester, MA.

Sometime in the nineteen-eighties, residents at a nursing home on South Main Street in Worcester MA pass the time smoking cigarettes on the porch.

It's 1994, on a day following a night of gang violence in Worcester, and there is a sense of unease among the youth of Kilby Street, Worcester.

Following a mud-diving event at a Memorial Day celebration at the Beagle Club in Charlton, MA in 2004, a contestant makes his toilet.

Quinsigamond College police officer, Worcester MA

Fairgoer looks at a sow in the livestock display at the Big E state fair in Springfield MA

Large citizen at a Massachusetts public beach summer 2003

A fairgoer has trouble mounting a mechanical bull at the Big E state fair in Springfield, Ma

2007, Worcester, MA Looking at her future?

At The Bread and Puppet Theatre's Sunday performance July 20 2014, in Glover, Vermont, the women prepare to harvest the grain.

In Worcester, MA in the winter of 2003, Frozen Crocker is the prevailing theme.

09 03 2003 men fishing above a dam on the Blackstone River in Massachusetts

Managers and executives at Allmerica Financial Corporation in Worcester, MA take part in the making of a May Day promotional video in 1993.

At an event in Worcester, MA in 2001 that offered up the comatose Audrey Santo for veneration by visitors convinced that the unconscious girl could cure them of ailments, confessions were held on the lawn. 

A judge stands in her judging area at a Central Massachusetts dog show in 1993.

At the Spencer Fair in Spencer MA, ducks escape from an exhibit and run past an area where hawks and eagles are kept.

2003

Worcester, MA: Boys in a carnival bounce house demand the attention of a girl outside.

October 2004. This is Bishop George Rueger eyeing an altar boy in a Catholic church service. Rueger was accused of rape in 2003 by a Shrewsbury man, Sime Braio, who said he was abused by Rueger over a period of years when he was a boy; he was coerced by state police into dropping the suit and as we can see here the Bishop was officiating in masses the following year. Braio died mysteriously in 2006.

1997, at a mass in Worcester MA. This could go with a song by Camille about bad romantic decisions.

At a Christmas event at a special needs center in Worcester MA, 1997

Year 2000 Worcester MA Harvey Ball, the creator of the Happy Face, with his sketches of his platoonmates who died in the fighting on Okinawa in WWII. In his studio in Worcester.

In a neglected model bomb shelter in Wilbraham, MA, buried in a bank on the grounds of the fire station, with a plate glass window for citizens to gaze in at the nuclear family of mannequins, the canned provisions, the books and toys. 1985.

Now I can’t remember what museum this is from.

July 2008 summer nationals: Worcester MA :A purple chevy convertible just sits in place with its rear wheels spinning until a tire blows or the driver gives up!  Fun at the summer national burnouts.

An early Astronaut suit packed for transport at a company in Southbridge MA that made some of the early suits.

At the Fairbanks Museum in St. Johnsbury, VT, essentially a dislay of objects collected by a wealthy industrialist on trips in the first part of the 20th century.

Roman Catholic Men's Conference at DCU convention Center, Worcester MA,::There were a number of nuns on hand passing out literature and promoting causes at the "Men's " event; here's Sister Patricia Edward of the Daughters of St Paul in Boston , which publishes Catholic themed books and CD's. 2004?

At the Crafts fair in Craftsbury VT July 2018

Barton Fair August 2018, Demolion Derby contestants watching the contest as they await their turns to compete.

Tashlich ritual by orthodox families at elm park:celebrating thje casting of sins into the water at the start of the new year: Aharon Heresh,left; men reciting the Tashlich by the water

At the Albany Vermont town meeting March 5, 2019

Peter and Elka Schumann walk along the road that passes by their home in Glover, VT, which is also the site of the Bread and Puppet Circus, theatre and museum. June 21 2019

West Brookfield MA George Crawford of North Brookfield rests on his walking stick while Matt Wawrzonek,10,left, Gilbertville, and Tyler Tetreault,10, Hardwick up in a tree, during a lull in the lawnmower races in West Brookfield.7/29/99

9/1/97 THE BEST PART OF THE FAIR: R.J. Billings of Exeter RI takes it easy after driving his team of horses at the horse pull at the Woodstock FAIR

About half the residences in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont are of this sort, while the other half are of another sort.

Pride Day in Worcester: parade travels from Institute Park to the city hall common. Here Nikita La Femme, Worcester, right, who won the Miss Diva Massachusetts competition this year,with a group of men from Club Xstatic in Springfield, who had a float; they were promoting, among other things,"Manhunt" brand underwear. 2012

At Town Meeting. Albany March 5, 2024, Albany VT Town Hall.

Photos of an already interesting sunburned up-on-blocks ‘55 Chevy pickup outside a beach bar in Puerto Rico take on some astounding colorization when viewed on an old Dell monitor that I keep around expressly because it torques color images this way.

A blend of the Green River Reservoir landscape with a pair of Green River Loons and a Hubble Cosmos photo.

Jon Vogel’s soldiers, Springfield Tennessee

Melange or mash-up of several images, skulls and bones and flowers and a Garifuna girl from the north coast of Honduras.

They return, but their minds are out there.

Sweeping up the fall New England foliage feast with the image recorder

2014

Endre Friedmann, aka Robert Capa, did this before, but one can do cover versions of photographs as well as of songs. Of course, I set this up, but some say Friedmann did too, and of course nobody got hurt in this cover version.

One of a series of portraits of people floating below the water's surface.

One in a series of portraits of people photographed below the water's surgace

One in a series of underwater portraits

One in a series of underwater portraits:

Ahjee Damon,10, surfaces fromn the Beaver Brook Park Pool

One in a series of underwater portraits

One in a series of underwater portraits

JC under the surface of the Mississquoi River, taken by Susanna B, 2002

JC underwater in a hot springs in British Columbia in 2019

2008 Mina Gerais Brazil, the sky reflected in a swimming pool.

Green River Reservoir, Hyde Park Vermont, September 30 2021

Many separate images of Cedar Waxwings in flight in a mashup

It’s spring and the frogs are afloat.

By a Vermont pond, a dragonfly emerges from the husk of its nymph-stage self.

Above San Diego Beach on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua, home to countless sea birds.

The Canquen, or Ashy-Headed Goose, at Rio Tranquillo (Lago Carretera) in Patagonian Chile, February 2018.

The Anhinga, or Snake Bird, above the Rio Sábalos in Nicaragua, 2015.

Summer 2016 Lake Umbagog NH; pond grasses and their shadows through the water to the pond bottom.

On the Gaspé peninsula in Quebec, along the Bon Ami point.

2014

Three heron families in a Westminster heron rookery, North Worcester County, 1997

Horsetails shoot up in the spring around ponds and marshes; they are eaten when new, supposedly beneficial for kidney function.

Ravens gather in great flocks prior to their southern migration. Northeast Kingdom, Vermont, October , 2014.

Summer 2016 Lake Umbagog NH; pond grasses and their shadows through the water to the pond bottom.

Summer 2016 Lake Umbagog NH; pond grasses and their shadows through the water to the pond bottom.

2016 late Summer. An island appears out of the fog as it lifts from Umbagog Lake in New Hampshire.

Lake Umbagog, NH, 09 15 16, the underside of lily pads

Fallen willow leaves arranging themselves in still water.

On the Quabbin Reservoir, the heavily restricted water supply for Boston, just east of the Connecticut River in Massachusetts, on a fine autumn day.  Scores of residents were evicted from dozens of homes to enable the state to flood this large area of western Massachusetts, not that anyone cares today. Sweet are the uses of adversity, Bostonians say.

Autumn on Job's Pond in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom 2016

2016 in Essex, MA

December in the Northeast Kingdom 2015

In East Albany Vermont on Agua Nana Pond, a part-time resident heron flies from his favorite spot

On a trail in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont

Juvenile Chilean Sea Lion (Lobo Marino, Sea Wolf) in the fjord at Raul Marín Balmaceda, Chile. 2018

Balmaceda Feb 25 2018, Patagonia. Sea Otter

A lily pad made more interesting by insects lies atop an uncompromised pad, Green River Reservoir, Vermont, 2018.

Green River Reservoir, Vermont.

Patagonia: 02 12 18, south of Cerro Castillo: Puyuhuapi I think.

Offshore of Los Haitises National Park in the Dominican Republic, we see a pelican in a tree. Who knew! March 2020

Autumn Foliage Colors as interpreted by the pond at Fountain Hill, Albany VT 2021

Autumn foliage colors as rearranged by rippling pond water, Albany Vermont 2020

The Brimfield Flea Market,first day of May market 2018 brimfield

Brimfield Flea Market, first day of May market 2018

Collectible Barbie Doll wardrobe set with an asking price of $315, at the Brimfield Flea Market, May 2014

Collectible bass casting plugs at the May 2014 Brimfield Flea Market.

At the May 2014 Brimfield Flea Market, French, German and U.S. officers' hats in Joe Machado's tent.

The human figure is always on display at the Fleas

At the Brimfield Fleas May 2017

At the Brimfield Fleas May 2017

Betsy Wilbur's "Tin Lizzies". She has a shop in Locke, NY. Brimfield Fleas 05 17

Dealer's fleaesta, Brimfield Flea Market May 2017

05/12/2004 19th-century carved wooden Christ figure at the Brimfield Antiques and Flea Market, Brimfield MA

Along Route 20 in Brimfield Fleas 05 17

Album photos , Brimfield Fleas May 2017

Brimfield Fleas May 2017 porcelain heads. Or plastic. And the photograph is curious.

Dealer Randy Siciliano, Oakhurst NJ, and his wares , Brimfield May 2017

Dealer Tony Flynn at the May 2017 Flea Market in Brimfield

The Brimfield Flea Market: It's not just for antiques. September 2017

Sigchos , Ecuador, 1978. A portrait of Segundo, the tailor.

Hardcore Fan 'Uber' outside the Palladium , Worcester , MA, during a metal/hardcore festival 7/17/2004

Waiting for the right guy

Front Line Fans of Marilyn Manson at the Centrum, Worcester, 1999

Montgomery, Vermont, 1975

In Guano, Ecuador, men play cards of a Sunday morning in the corner cafe. 1978.

Guamote , Ecuador, 1978

Time exposure portrait of two farmers taking tea before the farmhouse hearth in Doochary, County Donegal, Ireland, 1985.

Donegal, Ireland, 1985

Barbara Higgins and her cousin Mo in Monson, MA in 2000 at Barbara's high school graduation party.

Chick King and his granddaughter roast hot dogs in front of their home in East Albany, VT. 2014

A man on a rural holding in Tuscany, at a place where he has always lived

2003 in New Hampshire's Umbagog waters, a portrait of Susanna 

08 07 16 At the Old Stone House Museum in Brownington VT Scott Anton makes portraits of teams of oxen with his Century2 8x10 view camera using the collodion wet plate process. The wet plate process was introduced around 1850 and came after the daguerrotype process and before the gelatin negative process.

jan 27 2018 A resident of Tenglo Island, across from Puerto Montt, Chile.

This might be in Firenza, Italy in 2001

Madonna singing at the Centrum in Worcester MA, 2004, with erotic images flashing behind her on a bank of screens.

Madonna 's re-invention tour comes to the Centrum.

Worcester Centrum 2004: Mary St. Michael of Worcester says that Madonna is leading people away from the real Madonna, a.k.a the Virgin Mary of the Holy Roman Catholic church. Taking exception to her message are Gary Marrocco,left, and Chris Parker (Mary told them they would burn in hell; they said they want to go to hell because there would be a lot of bad behavior there).

June 2004 :Lots of manual labor from dozens of men to put the mechanics and electronics together. Here's translucent material being applied to a huge frame that goes in front of a large video screen consisting of 250 individual monitors. Madonna comes to the Worcester Centrum.

Fans of the hard-core band Korn at the band's performance in Worcester MA in 2005

Year 2000 at the Palladium, Worcester MA

Front Line Fans of Marilyn Manson at the Centrum

U.S. president Reagan speaking in Springfield MA in 1988.

Then presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004 with his security detail at the Democratic National Convention in Boston.

Hilary Clinton speaking at the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2004, as seen on the large screen at the rear of the stage.

From a series on men and strippers called 'Consuming Passion'

From a series on men and strippers called 'Consuming Passion'

He leadeth me to lie down in Green Pastures

"We must grant the artist his subject mater; our critique applies only to what he makes of it."

"Trivial Attentions which men think it manly to pay."

from 'Consuming Passion' series

detail from the brewing tanks at Rapscallion Brewery in Spencer. MA

‘55 chevy pickup door panel sits in the sun along with the rest of the truck on the San Jacinto shore inpuerto Rico

Sits baking day after day, week after week, year after year, in the parking lot of the Gilligan’s island seaside bar in San Jacinto, Puerto Rico.

Ford F 135, circa 1950, baking in the sun on the plains of Saskatchewan.

Trash Can and wall in Ouro Preto 2008

At the Fairbanks Museum in St Johnsbury Vermont

Frost on the cabin windows, Fountain Hill, Albany VT

from 1999, at the Worcester Centrum, cheetah shoes on mosaic tiles

2016 , Padre Ramos, Nicaragua, by the Gulf of Fonseca

shoe store detail Morocco 2011

Jon Vogel’s soldiers, Springfield Tennessee

Market Detail Morocco 2011

Moroccan door latch 2011

Olives in the market, Essaouira Morocco 2011

December 2019 at Fountain Hill in East Albany VT .

Writing in a journal or ledger outside a business in SaPa Vietnam. Perhaps an accounts book. Black Hmong woman.

Hmong Boys with paper birds, SaPa center, March 2017.

Sunday in SaPa center, heavy fog

Ethnic Hmong or Dao girls in sunday clothes outside the catholic church in Sapa, northern Vietnam.

Three men in Hoi An, central Vietnam, March 2017.

Traditional Art Theatre performance in Hoi An Vietnam March 2017

Waiters Waiting, SaPa 03 17

Black Hmong women at market, Sapa, northern Vietnam. March 2017

In the former port city of Hoi An, now a tourist mecca, 2017.

In some North Vietnam towns, goat features largely on the menus, including goat testicles picled in booze.

Looking from one train to another in Hanoi, 2017

Train tracks through old town Hanoi 2017

On one of the many ferries one must employ in order to move through Patagonia, Chile (especially when a landslide has interrupted the Carretera Austral at the important junction at Santa Luisa).

2/25/18 In Chile: Dusk on the long Ferry to Quellon, Chiloe, from Raul Marín Balmaceda, Patagonia.

On the ferry to Chiloe from Raul Marín, a passenger remains in the family car and thinks her private thoughts. February 2018

Santiago 3/6/18 In a park, a phone call

In the town of Chonchi, Chiloe, Chile.2/27/18

In Chincho, on Chiloe, Chile, 2018

In Chincho, on Chiloe, the wall of the the Museo de Acordión, March 2018

the betting l

Galeras beach midnight 03 03 20

The Cardones Road

Serious focus

In Los Cardones, DR. out from los Cacaos

Playa Playita in Las Galeras DR 03 03 20

Playa Rincón DR 03 07 2020

Las Galeras DR town beach.

Black Falls, Montgomery, VT 1974

1972, The French Hill Commune, St. Albans Vermont. Mike Minsky is the communard swineherd.

Self-timer photo of Jim Collins and Susan Bowman and their dog Sears, in their summer dwelling at the French Hill Commune, St. Albans. We built a wooden platform and covered it with a heavy army canvas over hooped saplings, with mosquito netting at either end, dug a latrine and built a fire cooking place, and moved out of the big house in the summers.

1973 French Hill St. Albans Vermont, pulling up the bents for Jim Collins and Susanna Bowman's cabin in preparation for Camille's birth at the end of the year. L-R Jim Collins, Frank Lanza, Tom Talbot. Photo by Susanna Bowman

Jim, Susan and Camille's post & beam cabin in its first year, 1974; French Hill Commune, St. Albans, Vermont

ca 1972, French Hill commune, St. Albans, communard in a mosquito headnet, driving a 1950's Oliver tractor borrowed from the Plouffe family in the house in the background.

1971: Notorious Billy Stebbins, White River’s favorite enhanced pharmaceuticals dealer, after making a delivery to the French Hill Commune.

Starting the morning off right in Vermont, 1971