How Green Becomes Wood

"He might be," Milo said, squinting at it, "Peter has an old family, right? You should text it to him, maybe it is a relation." He turned again, looking at the room, and jerked up onto the balls of his feet, "This is so cool. This is really cool."
 
Xander took out his phone and awkwardly took a picture of the picture, but he didn't send it yet. He could do that later. "Maybe we'll find another lost relative in all this. What's next?" he asked Milo, tucking his phone back into his pocket.
 
"I don't know, I just. Wow." He walked to the display which explained the different parts of how old cameras worked and examined it carefully, "I think it'd be really cool to own stuff like this. Like, a whole studio that's just old cameras. Those are staged photographs I wouldn't mind, because that's not just about the subject, then, it's about like... the process? You know? Look how much work it took."
 
"I didn't realize how much work it took, not even after you showed me your style," Xander admitted as he stood next to Milo, reading over the processes. "Dude, you should totally get into photography as like a side gig. It's a hobby that'd pay for itself, and people like vintage and retro stuff. They'd go all out for this." He paused and studied one particularly in-depth explanation. "Heck, I'd even want one or two."
 
"It would take me a long time before I could afford anything like this," He nodded towards the camera obscura, "and it'd take even longer to have the space to do it in. I think it's so cool, but I wouldn't even know how to get started with something like that."
 
Xander shrugged. "I guess you've already gotten started by getting one camera. I guess the next step is to get a second camera of a different type and maybe submit some pictures to, like, magazines or competitions or whatever. That should tide you over for a year or two, right?"
 
"When I'm in college, maybe," Milo replied, rocking on his feet, although now it was from the excitement about the exhibit, not from anxiety, "I'm still worried about how my mailing address changes so often, you know? If they mail the check after I've moved, then I don't get anything, you know? And it doesn't really hurt much, because I still get my name out there, but I don't know. Maybe online competitions where they don't need a mailing address."
 
"Online's a good idea," Xander nodded, "or even competitions where you don't get a prize, just recognition. And loads of people do like Paypal, venmo, and all those other ones now, so I bet you could work something out."
 
"Maybe. I don't know what to submit, even. Look at these!" He gestured to some old photographs of people on a street, just going about their lives, "See, this is what I care about. Nobody in this picture knows they were being photographed, so now we get to remember what it was actually like. What they actually did, and wore, not what the subjects want to be."
 
Xander glanced at Milo, impressed by his enthusiasm. "Hqve you gone to, like, parks or malls or whatever public place to get pictures like this? Maybe somebody will find them someday and learn about what stupid fashion choices we made like a hundred years ago."
 
He nodded, "I take a lot when I'm just going through my day. I've got a lot of school hallways and grocery stores and city streets. Once, when I was still in Chicago, I was walking around at night, and I was taking my pictures, and one woman in the crowd stopped and posed. That I liked, because everyone else was living as they always did, but she stopped and broke through, and I think that picture is very cool. And I had a lot of city lights in it, too."
 
"Huh. That does sound cool," Xander admitted. "You should totally make like a... I don't know what they are called, but it's like a photo album but with really big pictures in a book? Not for anything, just for yourself and maybe to show off a bit."
 
"I don't know how to do that, either," Milo admitted, walking to another area of the exhibit, still with wide eyes, "I'd like to hang my pictures in a gallery, someday. I don't know who would go, or what I would theme it, or what pictures I would choose--and it would be so far from now, I'd have so many more--but like... One of those galleries with grey walls and frames and spotlights on every picture... Where you walk around, and there's... I don't know, drinks, I guess, and there are plaques discussing all of them. And I'd do all the work to scale the negatives up to be the right size."
 
Xander glanced at Milo. This was one of the few times he's heard Milo actually talk about his dreams for the future. Real dreams, with details. "People like you would go," he said quietly. "People who like museums. Art. Light and form and stuff. Kids. Old people. People who do photography. People that wish they did. Might take them a while to find out about you, but once they do... They'll seek you out."
 
"I don't know if kids would go," Milo replied, looking at the walls of all of these old photographs, and seeing the names of photographs listed, and hoping, buried deep where he tried to squash all of his hopes, because most aspirations felt unrealistic, that maybe one day something of his could end up in a place like this. Not a full section, but he didn't know the name of every photographer listed here. Many had a single photograph hung up. That could be him, maybe.
 
"We're here, aren't we?" Xander pointed out. "I mean, we aren't really kid-kids anymore, but close enough, you know? And I'd come to any gallery thingy you had. As long as you tell me about it. If I find out you had one and didn't tell me, I'd be pissed." Something sparkly caught his eye, and he wandered off to look at a piece of equipment he didn't recognize.
 
"I'd tell you," Milo said softly, following Xander to the curious piece of equipment and taking a little bit of time to explain what it was, while still thinking about this potential gallery. Already, the little voice in his head was telling him it wouldn't happen, that it couldn't happen, so he tried to just focus on how awesome this exhibit was.
 
After he looked over a couple more items, Xander asked Milo, "Hey, what's your favorite piece in here? With all these cameras and pictures and stuff, what's your favorite?"
 
"What do you mean?" Milo asked, looking at Xander, "Like, what's my favourite of the cameras? Or photographs? Or photograph types? I really think the hyalotypes are cool, and they're pretty against the light. But I think, you know, cabinet cards are really important for how we think about it today."
 
"Alright, come over here and let me get a picture of you next to them," Xander said, jerking his head in the general direction of the cabinet cads. "It's a good spot for a pic, even if it is posed." More quietly, he added, "I need one for my shoebox."
 
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