I imagine it would be rather difficult to create a walking mascot for First Interstate Bank. Or the seventh one, I guess.

Emily Polar. No pun intended.

Yours, truly.

One more from the Wells Fargo corporate archive.

It’s so precise and uniform.

And filled with rogues. It’s quite a contrast, Hume’s methodical stalking, versus the likely chaotic lives of his targets.

I’m pretty sure only Black Bart gets a full page, however. But oh, look at Grant Sutton, there – I don’t think that’s quite the right hat for him.

Black Bart was quite a dandy, apparently. This is his walking stick. It’s about 30″ long – not actually long enough to lean on, but good for pointing at things.

A little more about these two on the Wells Fargo Archive blog.

Except that now, they live inside the San Francisco museum.

Even if you did get past those doors, you’d still be confronted with something like this.

Old Ben Franklin on this one (and his drinking buddy, I guess). I always pictured this scene being far less pastoral, you know, driving rain and lightning flashes and Ben’s pince-nez threatening to fly away in the wind. On the right, that lady is Electricity, and I’m not really sure what she’s doing with America there – is she rescuing or wrestling?


The main picture here is De Soto Discovering the Mississippi by William Henry Powell. I was pretty disturbed by the apparent baby crucifixion happening in the right corner, but in the color version, it’s clear that’s a decorative crucifix. Whew.

For you conspiracy buffs out there, the inscription is an abbreviation for the phrase Thesauri Americae Septentrionalis Sigillum, which translates to “The Seal of the Treasury of North America”. North America!

They went nuts with the typography on this one. I love the font for the words “United States”, and the fact that it actually says “Wells Fargo”. Finally, those are actual signatures, of the bank president and the bank cashier, on the note.

As much as I love computers and the internet, and everything that digitization has brought us, will bits ever look like this?

“When Businessmen Henry Wells and William G. Fargo gathered a small group of investors at Astor House in New York on March 18, 1852, they had no idea they would be forming what would eventually become one of the country’s top financial services companies and one of the world’s most recognized brands. Nor did they realize the founding documents they signed would one day be part of their company’s extensive corporate archives, collected, preserved, and catalogued for future generations to come.

“Today, the Wells Fargo Corporate Archives and historical collections encompass items from over eleven thousand companies. Some items are on display in our eleven corporate history museums; others hide and still remain undiscovered in our archives.

“This book is the story of the Wells Fargo Corporate Archives. Tended by a dedicated staff, Wells Fargo’s collection has grown over a century and today is the company’s corporate memory. The scenes of the American frontier, early banking documents, stagecoaches, advert-isements, and all the historical artifacts serve a function larger than promoting the company’s distinctive role in our history. Our corporate archives tell the story of our nation and its banking past and present.”

The cover of the book features one of the lockboxes that would have been behind the feet of the driver and the guard.

This is a collection of documents from Deadwood.

William G. Fargo, himself. And Henry Wells.

On the right, an example of a safe that would have been in place inside a Wells Fargo depot.

Who doesn’t love furry mascots?

Do banks still give stuff away?

I remain fascinated by the very idea of a fire grenade.

The book is for sale at the Wells Fargo History Museums, or you can call (415) 396-6408 and order one.

30″ Pearl Strand with Diamond Clasp at Kathleen Dughi

Sapphire Cabochon White Gold Ring with Marquise Diamonds at Kathleen Dughi

South Sea Pearl Earrings with Diamond Settings at Kathleen Dughi

This is a really interesting ring, because large, untreated sapphires are usually faceted. Kathleen Dughi bucks the trends though, and manages to demonstrate good taste at the same time. Under the lights, cabochons tend to throw the liquid look more consistently than faceted gems.

I spent much of this year making images that are really commercial, as I discovered when I looked through my set of images for 2011. There’s a lot of product stuff – jewelry, shoes, phones and tablets – but none of it seemed “personal” enough. Much more than in previous years, a lot of the pictures were for clients, and those aren’t allowed.

If I ever thought it was hard to be objective about my own photographs, it’s even harder to do so about photographs of my son. I struggled with submitting these because, well, Instagram pictures of my kid!

But they’re definitely mine.