Building Ghosts

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Admittedly the title is a play on words, as it is not clear whether this building is a ghost or the absence of the building has created a ghost. Nevertheless, they are basically the same thing. When structures are built together and one of them goes away, we see its impression and imagine what may have been. More often than not, that which remains can be quite interesting as an abstraction of the past.

The idea of the impression of the past is driving the initial prints in the Braddock project. For most of these buildings, the story is over, but what was that story? What were the plots and subplots that formed the whole? Much of this can be envisioned, correctly or incorrectly, as can be the ghosts of our imagination.

This general idea began for me in 1991 when I spent three weeks in Wales. My primary interest there was to visit the castles built by the English in their domination of the people of Wales. When in Harlech I was the first person that day to visit the castle, and walking by myself, could almost feel the soldiers of hundreds of years ago brush past me as I wandered the empty hallways.

When I look at these places in Braddock I wonder about the stories that must have been formed. I think about the joys that accompanied the openings and the disappointments that accompanied their closings. As with all things, many of these will go away and be replaced either by another structure to restart the cycle, or by the progress of nature.

Ask About

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Some places in Braddock bring more questions than I am able to imagine answers.  Apparently this was a car dealership, as the text “Ask about our 36,000 mi. new car guarantee” suggests.  Where would these new cars have been stored?  The building is the size of a large garage, so try as I might, I am not able to envision how this worked.

 

Bell’s Market

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I had not heard the term “food Desert” until a few years ago but have now seen it firsthand. Bell’s Market is one of two grocery stores I have seen in Braddock, and both are smaller than a typical convenience store. If one wishes to get quality, nutritional food then unless they have a car, they are pretty much out of luck. I live within a mile of a large grocery store, so in a worst case scenario it would be of little consequence to walk to it to purchase groceries. In Braddock this is not an option. I have not been in this particular store (I have been in the other one, which I previously wrote about), but I am sure that the cost of goods is no bargain.

Unlike Pair

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It is not unusual to see a pair of houses that were made the same placed next to one another.  In Braddock it is also not unusual to see one of the houses occupied and the other shuttered.  I cane across a number of such dichotomies, which made me wonder what happened to make one family leave and another stay.

 

On The Way Home

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With the start of the new year I need to get working on my show in June. I have selected a number of prints to be in the show, and need to make others to evaluate. I normally make small prints of each one that is being considered and live with it for a while. If it passes the muster then I make a larger print that is intended to be shown. The next several images that I show are small prints that will be redone in the larger size, probably with a few changes made to each.

There is not a lot of activity in Braddock. As I wander the streets I do see people, but it is not the hustle and bustle to which I am accustomed. This is a mixed blessing. Too much activity can lead to the craziness I see each day, but this is a downtown area that could certainly benefit from a little such craziness. I saw this man twice as I walked the streets and wondered where he was going. Had he left work? Did he have a job? It got me thinking that the next time I go to Braddock, which will probably be in June, I should take an inventory of the businesses that exist in the city. As I continue my documentation it will be interesting to see what survives and what comes to an end over the next decade.

This is part of The Braddock Project, to which I have linked for reference. This project is being created using the Bromoil process.

Extreme Reading

As my last post of the year I will offer an image shot on the streets of Baltimore. There are times we focus on things to the exclusion of all others, a trait that can be quite advantageous.

This woman was seriously focused on the literature at hand. I initially thought that I may have caught her in an odd facial expression, but looking at other pictures I took of her showed the same intensity. For the record, it is a good thing to completely immerse oneself into other worlds and attack them with fervent abandon.

I am looking forward to spending a great amount of time in the darkroom next week. I have built up a number of negatives that await production onto paper and looking at the contact sheets, am very ready to realize them. I also need to get deeply involved with the production of prints for a show in June that will involve my Braddock Project.

Enjoy the holidays and the new year.

Goodbye To Portland

I have gone through my Portland pictures one more time and presented several here that I liked. Looking at the trove of other negatives seeking recognition (New York City, Braddock, Las Vegas) it is time to divert my attention elsewhere. So with this image I offer my goodbyes to Portland, a place I certainly hope I have another opportunity to visit.

Ignoring The Light

While in Portland I wandered the streets looking at people. However, there are some things that will really get my attention, like light. Obviously, light is the most important element in photography, so it is always in mind when considering an image, but sometimes the way light is presented just takes over the scene. This happens when the sun is low and reflects from the windows of a building onto another building, as was the case here.

Portland Reflection

One of the great things about cities is the reflections. Windows allow the joining of new and old buildings, sometimes in an obvious way and other times more abstract. Of the ones I took in Portland, OR this is perhaps my favorite, as it is a “three-for”. This is a picture of a series of windows in a new building reflecting an old and new building.

Best Job Ever

I was probably seven or eight years old when they started building a house across the street from us. I can remember sitting in the front yard with my father watching them. The basement was first, then the skeleton, then the outside. Of course, I was more interested in destruction, and even today it is more fascinating to me to see a building come down than it is to see it go up.

While in Portland, Oregon I came across the removal of a building in progress, and along with a group of other people enjoyed watching it come down piece by piece. It still amazes me to think that people actually get paid to do this, heck, I would probably do it for free. The bonus in this image is the bull that was attached to one of the implements of destruction.