Close to Home & Far Away - Roll 124
As October drew to a close, bringing me nearer to the end of my "Black Flash" week, I still felt the irresistible pull of the Ordered World, and my desire to photograph continued unabated. I stated at the beginning that one of my goals with this project was to photograph in locations both familiar and unfamiliar, locking down images I'd seen in my head, but never captured, and visiting new places I wanted to explore for the first time. On this roll I accomplished both tasks, starting with the world outside our window—the house across the street from Malia's apartment at the time was always lavishly decorated for Halloween, and so I began my day by walking a few feet outside and composing a shot here. Unlike in many of the photos I had taken that week, the trees looming overhead are mostly brown, leaves close to the end of their life, adding to the decaying, creepy feeling that the decorations in the front yard give off. The house's tan coloration contributes to this vibe as well, as if all the brightest color has been drained from the environment in anticipation of the fast-approaching November. This photo is simple but effective, and it proved to be a strong place to start my shooting that morning.
If the first photo heralded the coming of late fall, the next two prove that October had not lost its fire just yet; both images show that the fall foliage, in its brightest form of reds and oranges and yellows, was still vividly present. The first of these images is of an alleyway behind the apartment building, telephone poles cascading down the right hand side in light contrast to the bulk of a dumpster and shed on the left. The sun chose to make an appearance here, lighting up the range of colors surrounding the dumpster and emphasizing the red vines in particular; these vines were what compelled me to make this photo initially, and I'm glad that the weather aligned to give me a beautiful scene! The other shot I took in this area faces towards a pair of houses on the opposite side of the parking lot, where dark clouds formed a plain backdrop against which the orange-tinted tree and vibrant green grass stood out well. This set of houses had been a frequent subject for me before, both on film and with my phone, but here I found the right moment to capture, and I'm very happy with how all the elements came together in concert to produce this calm and quiet image. I am still amazed that in the space of a few minutes I made three images of the area around the apartment that succeeded, but I attribute this mostly to my familiarity with the surroundings, as well as my "locked in" state after a week of constantly shooting. I was blessed to be able to see scenes from the Ordered World with such frequency at that time, and I'm glad that I was prepared, with the right tools and capabilities, to preserve them as I saw them!
Content with my shooting in an area that I know well, I moved on to an unfamiliar location, the town of Buchanan in Michigan. Buchanan is another one of those smaller Michigan towns that, like Stevensville, I had heard a lot about but hadn't ever visited, and I was excited to see what I might find there. When I got to town I parked at the local meat market, Lowery's Meat & Seafood; when I visit a new place I try to park somewhere that will give me access to a lot of sights within walking distance. I evidently succeeded in that moment, because I found two photos of Lowery's itself that are very strong. One of these shots is of a trio of signage for the store—one the main sign, then a smaller sign attached to a scarecrow below the first, and finally a large sign on the side of the building. To this arrangement I added splashes of red in every direction, with a red house to the left, red car in the center, and some red mulch at the bottom matching the red signs and wall. Despite the straight-on angle I chose, the road and the power lines contribute a sense of motion to the photo, as if there are things entering and leaving the frame at any given moment. To me this is a perfect photo, well composed and full of interesting details, and I would have left entirely happy if this had been the last shot I took for the day!
Walking a little further to the front of the meat market, however, I found another scene that grabbed my attention, with various signage advertising different meats along with large statues of animals announcing the same. This type of American kitsch is another common subject for documentary photographers like myself, and I couldn't resist making a photo of these signs. I placed the largest sign, for fresh ground beef and chicken, in the foreground, letting the other signs and statues spill out behind it all the way to the opposite edge of the frame. Here again a wall of clouds neutralizes the sky, causing it to blend in with the buildings, and here again I have a few lines of patched concrete at the bottom of the composition, filling in an area that otherwise would be totally bland. I find a bit of irony in the fact that I have never been inside a dedicated meat market, being vegetarian, but have still found a place for such things within the Ordered World.
After shooting at Lowery's, I made my way down the main street of Buchanan, empowered by my success to keep searching for good photos. I soon found my last shot, coming upon a house that demanded my attention with its green exterior surrounded entirely by fallen yellow leaves. I love it when I can find scenes that only have one or two prominent colors, and such was the case with this house; even the trees, grass, and bushes around it follow these colors perfectly! Like my photo of the meat market sign, power lines in the right-hand corner point to some out-of-frame spot, breaking the self-contained nature of this image and adding some complexity to the composition. I am pleased with how solid this photo is, being an image of a very mundane subject, and also because it was the last shot, although not by my choice. For some reason, the film didn't catch again after I tried to wind to the next frame, and I ended up "finishing" the roll with only seven photos. As usual, though, I am not too mad about that error; the day's shooting was still a success, and I finished with a good number of images that convey the order and peaceful stillness that I always hope to find. As that week ended, I felt that I had done even more than what I set out to do, and I was excited to keep pushing forward in new ways!