Photographing Waiters and Roses

by Julie Wornan

“Waiters and Roses” appears in issue 919.

About “Waiters and Roses”: it happened that I visited an exhibit at the Centre Beaubourg in Paris — this must have been at least ten years ago — and took some snapshots with my camera set for incandescent light. Leaving the exhibit, I forgot to change the setting back to normal for outdoors, which gave the photos an interesting blue tinge.

The museum snack bar is on the top floor near the outside escalators; on passing it, I was struck by the busy waiters and the lack of customers. A drizzle was starting up, but the gloom was lightened by red roses on a couple of the tables. I took a photo. This inspired a fantasy about a conversation between the two waiters, and a photoshop creation wherein I multiplied the red roses and somehow put the whole thing into a transparent cube. I don’t quite know how I did this, but there it is.