Mother and daughter 034

Concentrated posing by Miriam and Esther in two classic glasses from the 1960's....
Miriam had some trouble with the stability of her Bausch & Lomb bifocals. I seldom write about this in the narrative but it's a miracle that so many glasses seem to fit my models in terms of adjustment. The arms of the glasses are adjusted by the optician to whatever suits the client best. That's the condition in which the glasses arrive in my collection and I never adjust them to my models. There is no time for that and no equipment either. If the glasses don't fit at all, they are simply laid aside and replaced by another pair. The Bausch & Lomb glasses were given to me by a friendly optician in Ireland. After introducing myself and explaining my quest, she obligingly went to the basement and came back with a dozen glasses. She produced the Bausch & Lomb glasses with a smile and said, "I thought you would be interested in these". She was absolutely right! I remembered seeing ladies sporting frames like this during the 1960's but even after 30 years as a collector, nothing similar to this had crossed my path. That optician really made my day in rainy Co. Mayo :). The glasses were really put on the map by freelance model Astrid who posed for me in a frozen forest and always maintained - even after five photo shoots - that these were her favourite glasses. The glasses were also shown to great effect by Astrid during the catwalk at the opening of my exhibitions in Holland and Germany. After a lapse of two years, it's nice to see them used again in a photo shoot.
Meanwhile, Esther was coping with the minus five Rx of the lenses in her Viennaline glasses. This pair is one of the cornerstones in my collection because of the frame design. Made exactly half a century ago, they represent the very brief transition phase between the cat eye era and the solid eyewear style of the mid 1960's. The glasses are invariably selected by my models, one might argue instinctively because they recognize that there is something special waiting to be tried out. I remember seeing girls and women in these glasses in the days of Beatlemania but not often. Looking back, it's safe to say that the glasses were no best seller for the same reason that makes them unique in retrospect - a sign that "the times they are a-changing". Bob Dylan's first albums did not sell because he was just a few steps ahead of his time, recognizing the up coming change and documenting it on the spot. Phases of change in society are often confusing to the crowd.