Publish or Perish

Background:

Parker Green was born in Rochester in 1885. He was the youngest of five children of Sven and Elizabeth Green and was put to work on the family farm with his brothers and sisters at a young age. Hard working and intelligent, Parker worked tirelessly to get away from the hard life of working the land. A modest artistic talent and a strong desire to do anything but work on the farm drove him to finish high school and scrape together enough money to attend the University of Minnesota, where he recieved a Bachelors degree in Fine Art. While in college, Parker was also "exposed" to the field of photography. This is where his true talent blossomed and he hoped to be a famous photographer one day.

After college, Parker managed to survive by shooting portraits and family photos but there was never enough work for him to build any wealth or savings and no opprortunities presented themselves for Parker to earn the fame he sought. Disheartened by his lack of success, when war broke out in Europe, Parker decided that he needed to take a chance if he was to have any hope of improving his fortunes. He developed relationships with editors at several large newspapers and magazines and at the age of thirty, he'd collected enough funding to set him off on what he believed would be his "Great Adventure".

Photographing the war did not turn out as Parker, or anyone else, expected. Trench warfare ground troops to a halt and they lived in terrible conditions and Parker was right in the thick of it with them. He did manage to capture some incredible images of the misery of it all, and he was paid handsomely. What he did not know was that the editors he sent those images to were paid even more handsomely not to print them by those who supported the idea of America joining the war. Only a few of the most inspiring of Parker's photographs were printed, and those largely without credit. Unknown to him, he was still not achieving the recognition for which he was risking his life.

During one of the offenses that Parker witnessed chlorine gas flooded his position. He was hospitalized for weeks, blinded and gasping for breath. Eventually his eyesight returned but unfortunately his lungs were severly scarred, leaving him weak. When he was strong enough to travel, he immediately returned home to see his family and recover on the farm.

Too weak for physcial labor, and still lacking the fame and fortune he desired so badly, Parker returned to the one opportunity left to him: photography. Having traveled far from his home and experienced horrors no man ever should, he no longer turns away for the bizarre, wretched, or horrible things that others would rather not think about. Quite the opposite, he seeks them out and the weirder the better. He's convinced that sooner or later he'll get a photograph of something so grotesque that people will be simply amazed and finally someone will remember the name Parker Green.

Equipment:

Parker's main source of income is a dry plate field camera like this one: Dry Plate Field Camera

Whenever possible he carries at least 6 plates with them. He also has a full tripod and flashpowder setup that he can use if necessary.

When the large field camera is too cumbersome, Parker falls back on a more portable folding box camera like this one: Folding Brownie Camera

It uses a 6 exposure folding roll film. Parker would never have less than two rolls of film on him when using this camera. (12 exposures total)

Due to the relative weight of the equipment Parker must use, and his general weakness from his war injuries, Parker pretty much lives out of his car: 1920 Willys-Knight Model 20 coupe with a self-starter (of course)

Parker owns a revolver which he keeps hidden in his car. He generally only carries it on his person if he expects to be involved in something dangerous. He leaves one chamber empty, which means at any given time he has 5 shots but he may be carrying extra ammunition if he expects a significant amount of trouble.

Parker rents a small studio where he still occassionally does portraits to pay the rent when "weird" pictures aren't selling. It is divided into four seperate areas: the studio that has several windows and gets plenty of light, a dark room for developing photos, a bedroom, and a small kitchen and dining area.