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It is difficult to imagine an image more iconic than this. Unfortunately, the significance cannot be seen in this size.
To date I have made twenty 8×10″ Bromoil prints related to this project as a prelude to making 11×14″ prints of each. As Bromoil obscures file detail, I may need to print this at a 16×20″ size, which is normally much larger than I require, but I think that this may be an exception.
There are two elements that require detail to understand the significance. The first is that the side of the building is painted with a picture of a building (the Carnegie library, which was the first in the series of libraries established by Andrew Carnegie). The text reads “Historic Braddock, Welcome Back.” The other significant detail, which is not immediately noticed, is the number spray painted on the door. This indicates that the building has been designated for demolition.
All images at the beginning of this project have started life through my Nikon FM2N and Fomapan 400 film.
I have started a project on which I expect to be working over the next decade. Braddock, PA was a steel town located east of Pittsburgh. The years 1900 through 1960 show that between 12,000 and 20,000 people lived there. I could not find census data for 1970 and 1980, but by 1990 the steel industry had collapsed and with the infusion of crack cocaine the population dropped to 4,700. By 2000 the population dropped below 3,000, and the latest census has it at less than 2,200.
I have no interest in disaster porn, there are plenty of photographers more than willing to fill that gap, and the demise of this area has already been well documented. My hopes, however, are to document the city’s recovery. John Fetterman, the city’s mayor, has attempted to revitalize the area with Braddock Redux and initiatives such as urban farming. Over the next ten years I hope to be able to document the recovery of a city. In these economic times this appears to be an impossible task, but I remain optimistic of the possibilities.
This project will begin with the creation of Bromoil prints. Over the next several weeks I will offer scans of these prints in the hopes that they give a sense of place, and a starting point from which future images will have a base.
There are numerous ways to shoot street photography and a while back I started to put together a list of things that I do. Most street photographers do a good bit of walking, but I like to combine that with staying in one area and waiting for the picture to come to me. Broadway is one of those places where there are so many scenes that planting oneself in a single place will yield numerous opportunities, and as I was wandering the area I noticed a photographer who was doing just that. I watched him as his eyes slowly scanned the area and was ready when he raised his camera to take a picture. As fortune would have it, there was a very clear path not only to him, but also his subject.
This was taken using my Nikon TI35 with Fomapan 400 film.
Okay, I have already offered two other pictures with the same subject, so why a third one? Well, to tell the truth, I liked it and it appears to nicely capture the activity of the day. I have experienced this type of scene in New York City, and just really enjoyed going from table to table to watch the progress of the games. You will notice that the pair in the foreground are not playing with a clock. I always found this to be the most difficult way to play. Without a clock I feel pressured into making a move because of an artificial deadline, but with a clock when I see that my position is lost, I can move quickly in the hopes of running out my opponent’s clock.
The Tugboat On The Monongahela image to which I pointed in my last post was a Van Dyke print was made from the original slide, that I am showing here. In the past I had to work around the face that the transparency had a small defect, which of course manifested itself in the sky. When printing it I normally had to crop down about 20% to work around it, which did not spoil the image, but I felt made it less effective. Digital technology today makes correcting that problem a five second task, so I am not able to print the image the way it was actually obtained.
For me, this is the greatest advantage digital technology offers – to be able to correct for the deficiencies. For instance, I worked on a Bromoil that I eventually titled Afternoon Stroll. I loved the image, but the problem was that the little girl trailing the rest of the family was rather faint. The original negative was Kodak Infrared, which created some wonderful problems, most which worked in my favor, but the faintness of the little girl did not. Including her was essential, and as I tried again and again to make her prominent enough to be noticed, I failed at each attempt. I tossed about half a dozen attempts into my scrap pile and almost gave up. However, I had missed the obvious solution, which finally remedied the situation. I scanned the negative into Photoshop, brought out the little girl, then made a digital negative and created the print through that. Making the Bromoil, I got it the way I had wanted on my initial attempt.
So although I do enjoy the way out capabilities that are offered digitally, I actually see things rather normally and like to then interpret the scene from that vantage point.
One final picture from Portland. One of the last days had me well off course in wandering the city. I had moved well away from the areas I had previously explored, but figured out where I was and began the trek back to where I was staying. Walking over one of the several bridges I saw a tugboat heading toward me. It reminded me of a tugboat picture I took a number of years ago on the Monongahela River, though this was quite different. In a way it marked an ending point, as did the approach of this tugboat. I watched the Mary B slowly pass underneath me and I returned to the hotel.
There are a number of ways to shoot street photography. Oftentimes I wander about the streets looking for something interesting, occasionally I follow someone, and at times I stay in one spot, waiting for the picture to present itself. In this particular instance all three were at play. I had been wandering throughout Portland, Oregon taking pictures of interesting things when I stopped to take pictures of chess players (see previous post). I learned long ago that after taking a picture it was often advantageous to turn around to see if there were possibilities behind me, and in this case I saw a man in an open area appearing to be either somewhat lost or looking for something. I followed him visually, waiting in the same spot until I felt that the surrounding elements worked, then took the picture. He reminded me of someone who had been caught in time and placed somewhere randomly, waiting to get his bearings before moving on.
By the way, the police were both heading over to a couple of apparently homeless men who were sleeping. To their credit they asked the men if they were okay, then went about their business. In my short time there (about a week), this city appeared to be accepting of many different ways. One can tell that the Tea Party has not taken root in this area as the trolley throughout the city was without cost, allowing people the opportunity to leave their cars at home and encouraging them to ride their bikes (wide bike lanes, trolleys with large hooks on which to hang bikes, etc.). I believe that this would be a great place to live, though I certainly would feel left out to some extent because I would refuse to get a tattoo.
A couple of posts back I noted that Portland enjoys chess and showed a large set. This image is of a normal sized set in a public area, with a rather intense game in progress. This was one of three games in the same area and was probably a five minute game (a game where each player has five minutes to make all of their moves – go beyond that limit and the game is forfeit). The pressure is not only in the game itself, but also playing in front of a number of people intently watching the moves. In this game the black pieces prevailed in a well played game, with scattered applause at the end.
It is said that every picture tells a story and is worth a thousand words. If that is the case then this diptych should do twice as much. While on the trolley in Portland, Oregon, I was shooting HDR images of the people accompanying me (heck, if I’m going to shoot large format street photography then I may as well try HDR with similar subjects) and came across this scene.
I like to make stories of my images, which is the case with The Extras – the book can be downloaded for free (or you can buy it!) and includes a story with each image. These stories are make believe, as would be the story I would offer with this diptych. As I sat, pretending to fiddle with my camera, I could hear their conversation, but not well enough to know what they were talking about. So what would your story be?
My guess is that your story, as would mine, would be of an argument that was not resolved. He has apparently said something to which she took offense, so she responded angrily and then resolutely ignored him. He was not exactly pleased with this response. Good story, and an obvious one, but this was definitely not the case. The conversation was amicable and I actually swapped these two images, as the image on the left (or set of images – remember that this is HDR) was actually taken after the one on the right.
So is this diptych intentionally misleading? Does it tell a story in either sequence? Is the story different? These are the things I enjoy playing with when taking pictures of people in public places, and why I enjoy street photography more than street portraiture, as it gives me more of an opportunity to play.
I spent last week attending a conference in Portland, Oregon. The differences between that city and Baltimore would take a book to innumerate, so I will not try doing that here, but it was a great deal of fun to note them. Amongst being an exceptionally bike-friendly city, it appears to be one that enjoys chess. As one who occasionally imbibes in the challenge, I watched a number of games. One difficult way of playing is to use over sized pieces, as was the case in this particular image. Despite the fact that white has an easy win in this position, a major blunder was made that turned the tide to an eventual loss. Playing chess in a non-standard format makes things considerably more difficult and easier to miss the obvious, so it is hard to blame the player.
The light on the building behind them did not escape my notice, and I will post an image in the future that shows a little more of that interesting occurrence.
