Hey William,
I've been thinking about these photos on and off all day. The more I think about them the cooler they get--damn, I wish I'd thought of this idea! I would love to see more of these, as I said. You seem to know all about the film and how it was made so I don't need to offer anything else in that regard (although I seem to recall that there is a nice hedge maze out in Virginia, near the Lurray (sp?) Caverns. No doubt there are others.
For those non-Kubrick disciples out there the basic idea of the images is that they were made by Jack Torrence, the lead character in The Shining. During the course of the film Jack is writing a novel and is using a old scrapbook he found in the hotel (not so overt in the film but it is there, more details in the book). So these photos are the sorts of things that Jack would have been looking at in the scrapbooks, perhaps (?). The early date and the self-referential aspect makes sense as well in the context of the film (no spoilers here) although it might be even better to move them forward to the winter of Jack's visit with his family and hint at the story and what is to come in the pictures? I don't know.
In any event an excellent idea. If you do a book I'll be your first customer.
--Darin
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