By WARREN KULO, The Mississippi Press

OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. (AP) — There’s possible nobody in Ocean Springs who’s extra of a “individuals particular person” than Charlie Taylor.

Taylor and his spouse, Ginny — Ms. Ginny to most — have resided of their Lover’s Lane house because the mid-Nineteen Eighties. Through the years, notably throughout his retirement years because the early 90s, Taylor has change into a fixture in native espresso retailers and pubs, the place he and a few of his lifelong buddies maintain court docket every morning with espresso and afternoon with cocktails.

Alongside the best way, he’s made scores of buddies — many who’re 20, maybe 30, years his junior. Taylor enjoys laughing and making others giggle, usually at his personal expense. Just a few years in the past, he got here to the downtown Ocean Springs Halloween occasion dressed as Uncle Fester of “Addams Household” fame — full with the lightbulb in his mouth.

So it’s one thing of an oddity that this man who so loves individuals and is gifted with a digital camera in his fingers hates taking images of individuals.

“I’m not eager about doing individuals,” he mentioned flatly throughout a latest interview with The Mississippi Press. “I’ve finished it — highschool senior footage, marriage ceremony, all of that, but it surely doesn’t actually curiosity me.”

However the topics he likes to shoot change into artistic endeavors.

Taylor, 76, was born in Laurel however spent most of his childhood and adolescence in Biloxi, the place he graduated from Biloxi Excessive Faculty earlier than shifting on to the College of Southern Mississippi, the place he was within the Military ROTC program. In Might 1967, Taylor graduated from USM, married Ginny, was commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant within the U.S. Military and obtained orders for Vietnam — all in a span of two weeks.

He shipped out to Vietnam on New 12 months’s Day 1968. With poor eyesight, he couldn’t get right into a fight arms unit, so he was assigned to the Quartermaster Corps. Arriving in Vietnam, he was assigned to a logistics unit in La Drang, the place he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant.

Taylor and his unit have been there for the Tet Offensive. He recalled his unit killed 600 North Vietnamese throughout a two-week interval, an expertise he calls “fairly grotesque.”

Taylor remembers being eager about pictures from watching his father with an outdated Kodak, and later a Browning, in addition to a university good friend who had a Polaroid. Nevertheless it was throughout his tour of obligation in Vietnam when he first acted on that curiosity.

“I had R&R in Hawaii with Ginny,” he remembered, “and on the best way again I went into this small PX and purchased a digital camera and a few slide movie and began working with it throughout the little little bit of time I had.”

Sarcastically, a person whose work now options birds, vegetation, butterflies and exquisite landscapes alongside the coast took his first images in a struggle zone. Taylor mentioned he nonetheless has each slide he took in Vietnam.

As soon as he returned to the states after his tour in Vietnam, Taylor needed to put aside his budding curiosity in pictures, focusing as a substitute on “constructing a profession and beginning a household.”

He remained within the Military, rising to the rank of Captain, stationed at Ft. Gordon in Georgia. Taylor might need remained within the Military longer, however circumstances dictated in any other case.

“They wished me to return to Vietnam, however I had misplaced belief within the management in Washington by that time, so I acquired out,” he mentioned.

He would stay within the Military Nationwide Guard, retiring within the mid-Nineties as a Lieutenant Colonel.

Returning to the Mississippi coast with Ginny, Taylor in the end cast a profession within the mortgage mortgage enterprise, welcomed two sons within the Nineteen Seventies and have become a grandfather.

It wasn’t till he retired from each the Nationwide Guard and the mortgage enterprise that Taylor would discover his method again to pictures.

“Ginny and I have been at a flea market in Cellular,” he recalled, “and I noticed slightly Minolta movie digital camera and purchased it. It price $26. I acquired some movie and began to show myself once more.”

Exterior of some seminars, Taylor is completely self-taught. As his pictures abilities superior, so did pictures with the arrival of the digital age.

“It was across the late 90s I began getting into a number of pictures contests and exhibits, just like the Ocean Springs Artwork Affiliation present and the Singing River one,” he mentioned. “I gained some awards and did nicely with it, so it simply sort of progressed from there.”

Taylor estimates he’s gained 20-25 awards at varied exhibits and prints of his work can convey between $100 and $500, typically extra. He’s the lone photographer among the many featured artists at My Pleased Place Gallery in downtown Ocean Springs.

Taylor mentioned what actually pleases him about a number of the awards he’s gained is that they’re not usually given to photographers. He clearly takes satisfaction within the reality his images are extra than simply footage. They’re artwork.

However his ardour for pictures isn’t pushed by awards or cash.

“I do it merely for the enjoyment of it,” he mentioned. “The very fact I’ve been capable of win awards and make some cash doing it’s only a bonus. What I really like is what I name the ‘Wow!’ issue. I really like to have the ability to create one thing with the digital camera that produces a ‘wow’ from individuals after they see it. That retains me going.

“I could take 100 photographs and hold one. If it says ‘wow’ to me, I do know the colours and composition are proper. If it doesn’t say that to me, it’s not going to say it to another person.”

Whereas Taylor has totally embraced the digital age of pictures, he hasn’t deserted the “old-fashioned” methods. Lots of the pictures he’s making nowadays are taken with classic lenses from the Nineteen Seventies and Nineteen Eighties that he’s tailored to a digital digital camera. All of them are guide focus.

As well as, he insists a photographer’s work isn’t full till there’s a print.

“Some individuals are completely satisfied to take a photograph, put up it to Fb or Instagram or another website and that’s it,” Taylor mentioned. “However I consider a print is an integral a part of pictures. I don’t consider it’s full till there’s a print, whether or not or not it’s on metallic, canvas or paper.”

He says his emotions in direction of his craft are summarized in a quote by expressionist painter Camille Pissaro: “Blessed are they who see lovely issues in humble locations the place others see nothing.” However Taylor’s blessings transcend his capability to “see lovely issues in humble locations.”

Taylor admitted to contemplating placing his cameras away a few years in the past, saying he was feeling “burned out.” However he credit the house owners of My Pleased Place, Dr. Ray and Hyla Weiss, with giving him a second wind with the digital camera.

“I used to be going to promote all my gear, drink extra whiskey and put out the ‘Gone Fishin’ signal,” he mentioned. “However I used to be on the OSAA awards present and Ray Weiss got here as much as me and mentioned he was turning the kitchen store right into a gallery and wished me to be the featured photographer. ‘You’d be the one one,’ he informed me.

“I considered it and agreed to do it. I’m glad I did. It’s stored me going and been a blessing to me.”

His largest blessing, nonetheless, has been by his facet for almost 55 years. Charlie and Ginny Taylor will rejoice that milestone anniversary in June. Military spouse, mom, homemaker, finest good friend and gifted gardener — Ms. Ginny’s backyard has ceaselessly been the topic of her husband’s photographs — she has been Charlie’s North Star.

“She’s been my proper hand, my rock,” Charlie mentioned. “If it wasn’t for Ginny, I’d both be lifeless or in jail. She’s only a nice, lovely, fantastic woman. I’m lucky to have ever met her.”

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