Timm at his laptop (a series)

There is a set of images showing Timm at his laptop which I found on his hard drive. They're dated 4-9-2008, 9 days prior to his fatal heart attack.

Timm by then was frequently preparing sets of images for stock photo companies, and this series seems to have been the next attempt.

I include the entire series that were kept (there are a few gaps in image numbers). And except for the first image (which I've moved up by ways of introduction), the series that you see is in the same order as they are archived.

You see the set-up attempts first: what to leave in, what to take out. A photo frame is on the wall in back and then isn't. A power cord disappears on the left. First you see Timm's wallet and cellphone, and those are replaced by two coffee cups, one of which he later goes with. Going for the best shots, Timm brackets some frames, taking several of the same shots with different camera settings.

Timm's first appearance is in his street clothes, replaced then wearing a more on-the-job sort of shirt. (Surely the stock photos would have a business/working theme).

Typically, Timm is the model -- the most affordable one around. He focuses on the screen, which is turned away from us; I wonder what he's concentrating on? In some frames he apparently writes; in others he obviously reads, whether what he has written or what someone else has. (E-mail? What is the conversation? Almost no copies of his sent emails remain.) Once he smiles at something he sees on the screen; in other frames he reads intently. In two frames he looks left and then right, making me wonder if someone was in that makeshift studio with him. Who? The setting doesn't look like Timm's apartment as I recall it; no table like that I recall. Where was he?

Most important, these are the last pictures of Timm before he died. Lots of grey in his hair for age 44; he looks pale and weary, though it could just be the late winter weather in Salem. He hadn't been feeling well since February, when on a run he felt something tug in his chest. The weekend after these shots, though, the weather turned glorious, and the last shots he took were in the park on a beautiful day, pictures of couples and kids playing and lots of dogs. Very living stuff.

Since I write now on Timm's Powerbook, I look at these pictures and feel how close he is to me whenever I'm writing. Maybe he will feel close to you too as you see these pictures. They are a series, a pour from that camera which was his eye, this thought. The ends of these pictures -- what they were to be used for -- remain a mystery; he didn't have time to finish the work on them; but we do have their moment to share with each other.