Shoeshined

Shoeshine stands are a bit of a mystery to me, and they always seem like an artifact of a 50s movie set in the Big City, or something my grandfather would have at some point used, had he not spent most his life as a grizzled boat-wright. For me, I've spent most of my adult life in crocs, so I really have no connection to the sort of person who gets a shoeshine. Are they tourists? Businessmen? Fetishists?

Well, there's definitely a little element of ritual to it, and that's what caught my eye when I passed this stand last week near Market and Embarcadero. I was in the middle of a team-building exercise, so I didn't have a lot of time here. The composition isn't as strong as I'd like, but I'm drawn to the story told by the faces of these men. What goes through your head while you're getting your shoes shined?