Chapter 4
Even before he started taking his photos Solomon knew the
Metropolitan Museum of Art well, thanks to his father Erwin, who took him there on Sundays.
In the beginning, when Solomon was ten, he disliked going to the Met, but his father was gentle yet firm about the museum visits. It took about a year for Solomon to become engulfed, even at times mesmerized, by the world of classical painting. During the first year the museum visits were short. Father and son looked at one or two paintings and that was all. After each visit, once outside the museum again, Erwin bought his son an ice cream or a hot dog from one of the vendors stationed at the bottom of the majestic steps outside the Met. Over the years the museum visits became longer. Solomon learned to look at paintings and reme
