I've noticed scenes like this at several strip malls over the years. A big heavy metal set of mail boxes for all of the businesses. And inevitably, there is some rebel who leaves a key in the lock, presumably so they don't have to worry about having to remember where they put the mailbox key. The first time I ever noticed this phenomenon, I took the initiative to remove the key and place it inside the mail box, assuming it had been left there by mistake. I can be slow on the uptake sometimes, but I soon figured out what was really going on. Well, for this photograph, I was drawn to how the beat up mailbox unit paired with the dirty stucco wall. The composition was pleasant enough in a Lewis Baltzian sort of way, and the scene appeared kind of timeless to me. The photograph could have been made in 1971 or 2021, and that left me feeling a little unsettled. This image was shot on the Santa film I got from Finland using a Leica R9 and a 50 mm Summilux in 2021.
