Randolph Engineering and American Optical

On the front, Randolph Engineering.  Back then they didn't need big logo.

In the back, the AO Original Pilot.

 Randolph Engineering bridge size emboss on lower bridge

Randolph arm, or bayonet, both left and right bears the same emboss.  In fact, there is no left or right, that's why one (left) arm's emboss appears upside down.

 AO right arm or bayonet from the eye facing side.

 AO left arm or bayonet from the eye facing side.

AO emboss on the upper bridge.

All shots are on tripod.  Unfortunately the arm shots were handheld, meaning, I held the arms of the glasses to move it back and forth in front of the lens to get to minimum focus distance.  Anyway, not the sharpest because of minute handshake.

People are demanding I make a comparison so here they are.  I thought I lost the AO but I actually had it misplaced.  This AO 57-20 is steel color and I have another newer AO pair that is smaller and in gold colored, 55-20 AO on the bridge, minus the USA emboss, on the right arm it says AO Eyewear, Inc.  no USA either.  So I am not sure if AO is still made in the USA, actually with just USA doesn't mean it's manufactured in the USA anyway.

Uncommon Places

"El Paso Street, El Paso, Texas. July 6, 1975. Stephen Shore/Aperture Foundation"

The New York Times' Michael Kimmelman, has this to say about the photograph:

Two years later Mr. Shore went to El Paso, Tex., and photographed, from the back, a slump-shouldered man, in an untucked white shirt, waiting on a street corner in the slanting sun of the late afternoon. Painted lines of the crosswalk before him recede toward the Capri theater at the center of the photograph, where the movie “Lady Kung Fu” was advertising itself in big red letters on the marquee. Like a Renaissance painting, the picture unfolds in one-point perspective. Everything is still, held in place by the strict geometry, while the colors — baby blue, yellow, red and avocado green — bounce and shimmy.

I am floored by the above description, by what Mr. Kimmelman can see.

I can sure take snapshots, everyone can. But I just can't possibly take what seemingly look like snapshots like Shore's or Winogrand's. My mundane is really just mundane and can never transcend and levitate to the level of great photography. I tend to like their aesthetics, their no nonsense approach to taking pictures. You know at least it's easy to execute their approach, going around taking pictures of the mundane and banal. It gives me hope at least.


Shore's Americana kind of makes me think of Wong Kar Wai's aesthetics. Wong is very immaculate, very organized chaos. Wong's take on Americana can be seen in his latest movie "My Blueberry Nights."

In a Cannes press conference, Wong says,

"All through the years we've seen a lot of films made about Chinese from foreign directors and sometimes it looks very embarassing and because a lot of these Chinese characters have been distorted and hmm ... it's too exotic. So, I always want to make a film in a different language but I (don't want) hmm .... want to avoid this problem."

I am sure his version of Americana will be very different from say Spiderman-3 as he jokingly and eloquently put it in another interview. Whether "Blueberry" is just another "Zzzz" or turns out to be a major art house success in addition to "Zzzz" like "In The Mood For Love" has yet remain to be seen.

Source: Passing Mile Markers, Snapping Pictures by Michael Kimmelman.