Field notes · Editorial

Tables for Noon

A terrace laid for lunch and not a single guest yet: the fifteen minutes when a cafe is a still life.

Sunlit cafe terrace with striped awnings, bistro chairs and potted plants — Photograph by Nick Page

The owner sets the tables at half past eleven and the first people arrive at noon. In between, the striped awnings, the bistro chairs and the potted plants pose for anyone who notices.

I noticed on the third morning. The first two I walked past on the way to something else, which is how most pictures are found: on the way to something else.

Still life, briefly

I shot it as a still life on purpose: symmetrical, patient, no people. The moment a waiter walked in with the menus the picture was over.

Row of bicycles leaning against a weathered wall — The bicycles at the end of the same street, which were there before the terrace and will be there after. Photograph by Nick Page.

The owner has the print behind the bar now. He says it is the only photograph of his terrace where the chairs are straight, and that he has never seen it like that himself, because at half past eleven he is in the kitchen.

Still life, briefly

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