Blog Post #187 - "A Celebration of Oddity", 26 July, 2020

A Celebration of Oddity

Blog Post #187 – 26 July 2020

Last week, I celebrated bits of beauty. This week, it’s a celebration of oddity.

Dictionary.com defines oddity as “singularity, strangeness, or eccentricity.” 

Now, I know a thing or two about oddity. 

As a child, I once overheard a friend of my mother’s whisper to her, “Well, Rose, Larry is...um...an odd little boy.” (Note to parents: kids always hear what people whisper.) Up until that point in my life, I hadn’t been aware of any adjectives used to describe me. I was blissfully oblivious about categories or pigeon-holes. It did not seem odd to me, for instance, that I would take inordinate interest in setting fires, stealing gun powder, or listening to CBC Radio. It is only in retrospect that I see the oddness of a pyromaniac child with a worrisome interest in explosions and politics. 

But once I had heard my mother’s friend whisper that word “odd”, I fully embraced the label. 

“Yes, world, I am odd. Yippee!” 

It wasn’t long before I was studying Russian, subscribing to Hansard, and quoting from Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book. Not to mention sending rocket designs to NASA, writing outraged letters to The Globe and Mail, and reading Lady Chatterley’s Lover to learn about sex. 

Yup, definitely odd.

Which means that one of the things that delights me most about photography is recording odd images. Off-kilter images that my mother’s friend would not have understood. 

But I thank her for the label. It has served me well.

In that spirit, I offer the following odd photographs for your perusal. Enjoy!

Closing note: this is my penultimate blog post before going on hiatus while Bill and I move to Picton. (Yes, dear Reader, I have reached “P” in the dictionary.) Once we are settled into our new home, I plan to re-start photography, writing, and blog posts, likely in early autumn. 

Next week’s theme will be part three of my “Conversations about Racism” - a reconsideration of the legacy of Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first Prime Minister.

Larry Tayler Photography

Belleville (soon to be Picton), Ontario

LarryTayler.com