All ten prints, full scanned resolution, unretouched — excavated from /home/ewebsne/public_html/bandphotos.zip. Return to the Print Room ↑

bandphotos.zip  ·  scanned January 10, 2003  ·  ten prints, all shown

The Ways of Living
— the Complete Prints

The family band of Downers Grove, Illinois, sometime in the late 1960s — scanned onto the family firm’s web server decades later, linked from nowhere, and thereby preserved.

Keith  ·  Bob  ·  Ron  ·  Jim  ·  Joe

Ten photographs went through a scanner in a single Photoshop session on the afternoon of January 10, 2003 — the file timestamps run from 3:41 to 3:45 — and were zipped into bandphotos.zip in the root of the ewebs.net docroot. Not in any gallery. Not linked from any page. One of the ten is the band’s own promotional card, which is how the collection identifies itself: The Ways of Living, Downers Grove, Illinois, managed by a Jim McDermott, reachable at exchange-name phone numbers that have not rung as dialed since area codes grew a third digit.

The Jim of the card is the family’s own — Jim Mulvey, whose firm ran the server the zip was found on, and whose name also signs the Hilton Head annex back in the museum. This page shows every print at the full resolution it was scanned, creases, tape, and thumbprints included. Nothing has been cropped, rotated, or color-corrected beyond conversion to a format your browser can read. The gallery below hangs the display copies; each “full scan” link opens the unresized file.

The band's printed promotional card: a blue duotone photograph of five young men posed around an ornate stone monument among trees, with the names Keith, Bob, Ron, Jim, Joe in script beneath, then THE WAYS OF LIVING, DOWNERS GROVE, ILLINOIS, and a management credit for Jim McDermott in the corner, the card taped at all four edges

The promotional card

The largest scan in the zip, 2504 × 3270 — the one the scanner operator lingered over. Blue duotone, five men around a stone monument, five first names in script, one band name in bold, tape at all four edges from decades on somebody’s wall. The management credit and phone numbers sit lower right, worn nearly through the paper.

band_003  ·  2.5 MB in the zip  ·  full scan, 2504×3270 →

Small color print, corners clipped: four young men in matching dark red shirts and black slacks behind a drum kit, three electric guitars propped against it, the drum head hand-lettered with an earlier band name now worn illegible

The earlier band

The smallest print, corners clipped: four in matching dark red shirts and black slacks, posed behind the kit, three guitars leaned against the bass drum. The hand-lettered drum head has worn past confident reading — and it is not the name on the promo card. Every band was another band first.

band_011  ·  491×512, as scanned  ·  full scan →

Black-and-white photograph of five boys in ties sitting in a row on a metal railing at night, one cradling a guitar, the print heavily creased and cracked

Five on a railing, after dark

Black and white, shot at night: five boys in ties on a metal railing, one cradling a guitar, all looking somewhere above the camera. The print is the most damaged in the set — creased through the middle and cracked at the corners, which is what happens to the photograph everyone keeps picking up.

band_004  ·  689×683, as scanned  ·  full scan →

Black-and-white photograph from a balcony of a packed high-school gymnasium dance, HOME and VISITOR scoreboard on the back wall, the band performing on a low stage at left over a dense crowd of teenagers in 1960s dress

The gym dance

From the balcony of a high-school gymnasium: the band on a low stage at left, a scoreboard reading HOME and VISITOR on the far wall, and between them a floor packed edge to edge with teenagers. This is what a working band’s Friday night looked like before anyone thought to film it.

band_005  ·  1996×1600  ·  full scan →

Square color print of a backyard performance at dusk: five members playing in front of a gray clapboard house, a guitarist in a blue tee in the foreground, singer in a yellow shirt at center, drummer and two more musicians behind, amps along the hedge

Backyard show, first frame

Color now: dusk, a gray clapboard house, the band set up on the lawn — guitarist in a blue tee up front, the singer in yellow mid-line, drums and amps against the siding. Somebody’s parents’ house, somebody’s neighbors listening whether they chose to or not.

band_002  ·  1034×1038  ·  full scan →

Square color print of the same backyard show from further back: the band on a terrace above a stone retaining wall and hedge, guitarist at left, drummer center, singer in yellow at the microphone, second guitarist at right before the gray house

Backyard show, second frame

The same evening from further back, and the venue reveals its architecture: the band plays a terrace above a stone retaining wall and a trimmed hedge — a natural stage the yard had presumably been waiting years to become.

band_009  ·  1068×1056  ·  full scan →

Square color print of five band members crowded on a basement stair landing between sets, in yellow and blue shirts, coats and cluttered shelves visible up the staircase behind them

The stair landing

Between sets, crowded onto a basement stair landing: five faces at five different levels of enthusiasm about being photographed, with the family coats and shelving carrying on domestically behind them. The least posed print in the zip, and therefore the best one.

band_007  ·  1056×1056  ·  full scan →

Square color print, heavily creased, of the five posed in a stone-walled basement with Fender amplifiers, a drum kit, and two bass guitars laid across the floor in front

The stone basement

The gear photograph: Fender amps, the kit, and two basses laid out on the floor of a stone-walled cellar like a quartermaster’s inventory, the five arranged around their equipment in the universal posture of young men who have spent every dollar they have on it. The print is creased into eighths; it has clearly traveled folded.

band_010  ·  1068×1056  ·  full scan →

Color print with heavy silver emulsion damage: on stage under a wood-paneled ceiling, a singer in a gold brocade jacket at the microphone at left while another performer in yellow dances at right, drums behind

The gold jacket, working

Later, somewhere with a wood-paneled ceiling — a lodge, a hall, a club. The frontman has acquired a gold brocade jacket, and the emulsion has begun surrendering in silver constellations across the frame, as though the print itself is under stage lights.

band_001  ·  1272×1009  ·  full scan →

Color print of the singer in the gold brocade jacket mid-move at center stage, arm extended, drum kit at right and a second vocalist at left under the same wood-paneled ceiling

The gold jacket, closer

Same room, same jacket, mid-move: arm out, head turned, the kit blurred behind. Whatever song this was, the photograph is convinced of it.

band_006  ·  864×658  ·  full scan →

Conservator’s note

All ten photographs are reproduced at the resolution they were scanned in 2003 — nothing cropped, rotated, or color-corrected beyond the format conversion to WebP. The display copies above are resized for the page; every “full scan” link opens the unresized file. The zip’s numbering runs 001–011 and skips 008, as found. The original bandphotos.zip (4.6 MB) remains in the vault, flagged for permanent preservation in the family archive.