Portrait of a Young Man

Kind of a nod to James Joyce with that title.  We've had a plethora of stories over here about JJ recently, what with the 100 year anniversary of the publication of his magnum opus Ulysses.  I read a good bit of Joyce in my youth and loved most of it (Dubliners, Portrait...) but I have to confess I ran out of steam with Ulysses.  I think I got half-way through before it beat me. Shame on me, I know.  I should try it again now I'm a bit older.  And for the record, I hardly scratched the surface of Finnegans Wake.  When I was courting my wife to be (and mother to the subject of today's print below) we took our first foreign holiday together in the North East of Italy.  That gave us the opportunity for a day-trip to Venice and, perhaps more importantly, a trip to Trieste, where Joyce spent some years in the early part of the 20th Century.  Mind you, when we went around the year 2000 it took a bit of research to find out where the great man lived and what cafés and bars he frequented but I did eventually track down one which we were able to spend some time in and think about the life of you-know-who.  Mind you, I much prefer that sort of experience to the in-your-face one where you walk down James Joyce Boulevard before heading into the James Joyce Café and buying the James Joyce frappé etc etc.  I don't remember too much about Trieste other than it was quite a lovely city to walk around (even in searing heat).  That, plus we had a rather superb pizza in a very unassuming café not far from the train station. 

Anyway, back to today.  Or last Saturday to be more precise, when we went a-visiting to my wife's youngest son:

HP5+ via the M6/28mm Elmarit, developed in HC-110.  Printed on very old Barclay fixed grade paper which has rather an unusual (but lovely) texture, which seems to accentuate the grain.

It's a big year for this guy - he's moving house in a few weeks and then in June he's getting hitched.  And a month or so after that his best man is getting married.  He's just beginning to realise the implications of all that those major events crammed into the space of a few months, which might explain the rather manic appearance in the shot above.