Lee Rice 1975

Mike Mandel made this baseball-card-sized photo of Lee Rice, we don’t know exactly when. What I love is how this piece captures the world in shades of grey! The tonality feels like a memory, softened around the edges. Check out the mirrored reflections in the sunglasses – trees, sky, the great outdoors condensed in those lenses. It's like the whole world is hanging out right there. You can tell that this wasn’t about technical perfection – it's got more to do with attitude and a kind of everyday poetry. The print itself seems straightforward, not fussy, which keeps the focus on the subject's presence. It makes me think of Ed Ruscha’s books of photographs, like ‘Every Building on the Sunset Strip’. Both share this fascination with the mundane, seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary. It’s not about answers; it’s about keeping the questions alive.