Photo Quiz

What do we see here? Two confident looking young men, certainly Peter on the left looks very self contained just as he always does in my vague memories of him. Michael also though his open now graffiti’d mouth possibly suggests just a little less cool than his elder brother. Could there be a starker contrast between these two and the others? Hugh in the front row though inclined to the back and me, well hiding really but with such display of adolescent attitude and that instantly reconisable slouching posture that has been my lifetime signature. Hugh’s folded arms and buttoned up jacket seem to be saying “I don’t want to be here” while my chin on chest slouch is probably saying “I wish I was there”. These big bold brash country boys were major peers, competitors, and role models for me and suspect for Hugh also when they came to live with us at Aintree along with their brother Paul and their mum and dad, Pauline and Mack, in 1952. Hugh was ten, I was seven and Chris of course was two. At seven, I was old enough to feel nothing but awed by these new older brothers who were, coming from a farming background, older, bigger and stronger so that I could not challenge but only hope to impress. This photo taken at Strathfield, at least ten and much likely more years later depicts to me an excellent portrait of this relationship. Adolescence is truly a very difficult period of life which I’m glad to say I’m almost over. I’d be interested to hear Hugh’s and particularly Chris’s memories if any of this period. I’d also be very interested in any therories about the graffiti artist and what the graffiti could mean if graffiti has meaning. I have handed the original over to CSI team but I’m not holding my breath and won’t be surprised to be treated as a suspect.