Exploring New Territory - Rolls 111 & 112

After my initial success with photographing locations that are very familiar to me, I chose for my next shoot to branch out and try going somewhere that I hadn't ever been. One of my overarching goals for What My Left Hand is Doing was to photograph the region in which I live to my satisfaction, filling gaps in my photographic knowledge by visiting both familiar and unfamiliar places. As it happened, I had to go to the city of Elkhart to drop off my submissions to the Midwest Museum of Art's Juried Regional show, so it made sense to me to try shooting there. When I am going to a new location for the first time I look for some landmark to start at, so after dropping off my pieces at the museum I made my way to a nearby cemetery, shooting a couple photos there before continuing on towards the industrial park area of the city. Historically I haven't found place like this photographically interesting, so I was pleasantly surprised to find something that did catch my eye, a sign for the Mayberry Cafe. Taller than all the other signs around it, it dominated the street over which it presides, forming a natural focal point around which I could build my composition. I used this photo as an exercise in sub-framing, turning the sign's posts and the power lines into a grid in which I carefully placed other objects of interest, most notably a sign for signs! Stephen Shore executed this type of photo very well,* and it helped me a lot to try one out and get a sense of what goes into the composition of a shot like this.

Mayberry Cafe, Elkhart, Indiana.

After taking this photo I kept wandering around, finally arriving at a local baseball field, where I took several more photos, including two that I am happy with. Because the fields were closed, I wasn't able to walk around inside, and I had to wedge my lens through a gap in a fence to take the first photo shown here; it is entirely possible that being able to explore more fully would have produced better photos, but I think this one is quite successful. I find that my eye follows the path to the center building and then up to the floodlights, moving through the different parts of the photo easily. Similarly, I think that the parking lot lines in the second photo serve the same purpose, pointing the viewer towards the trees and flagpole in the center. Something about this photo makes me think of William Eggleston, although I can't put my finger on it; it may be that the bright sunlight and type of tree in the middle reminds me of one of the photos in the beginning of The Democratic Forest. With this photo I finished my first roll of the day, satisfied with my findings and content, I thought, to be done shooting for the moment.

Riverview Park, Elkhart, Indiana.

Untitled.

Sometimes, though, the scene keeps calling me back, and that's what happened here; a nearby water tower caught my attention, leading me to load another roll and walk out to some railroad tracks, where I shot a few more photos in the afternoon sun. My most successful of these is a photo of the word "OK" spray-painted onto the grass next to the tracks, probably marking some place that was safe to dig if necessary. This photo really does have an Eggleston vibe to it, and I'm proud of how I composed the shot, leaving a bit of the railroad tracks and bushes behind the grass visible, making a complete scene out of what could be just a photo of the ground. I would have taken a photo of this same subject five years ago if I had come across it, but I don't think I would have composed it this way; I would have shot it straight on or done a full landscape shot that incorporates the text in some way. Neither of those approaches would have been wrong, but the one I chose in that moment fit what I was looking for, so it worked out!

Elkhart, Indiana.

Unusually for me I did leave the camera loaded with film as I ended my photographic exploration for the afternoon; this was because I knew that I was going shooting later that night, so I didn't have to worry about whether I'd finish the roll quickly. My best friend Jesus and I were planning to check out different locations in South Bend and Mishawaka at night, pushing ourselves creatively as we'd only shot a handful of successful night photos in the past. I had a notion that the film I had started earlier, a roll of Fuji Pro 400H, would be ideally suited to night photos as well, due to its second cyan layer that leaves images with a bluish tone. Since lights at night tend to be very yellowish, I thought that the film might balance out the color more evenly than a warmer Kodak film. This idea turned out to be correct—the photos I ended up really appreciating from this shoot were indeed quite balanced, with pleasing tones and good color.

One of my favorites, not just from that night but of the whole project, was a photo of a building that used to be a Marathon gas station, judging from the outline of lettering on the side. I noticed it across the street while Jesus was taking a photo, and after checking it out I determined that a straight-on angle would be best, not unlike my photo of the Mayflower Cafe sign earlier. Here, though, the building is dead center, bright against the pure black sky, but still not without other elements in the photo to bounce off of, such as the other building with lit windows to the right. Taking photos straight-on has been another compositional style that I have tried more and more throughout this project, as it can be hard to pull off well; as the "easy" or "lazy" way of composing, it requires more intentionality to utilize properly. I think that I did do that here, setting myself up for success as I kept exploring this technique later on.

Night—South Bend, Indiana.

I encountered the subject for my last great photo of the night as we walked down the streets of downtown Mishawaka, where the brightly lit windows of the Mishawaka Sports Museum caught my attention. I love finding scenes that are bursting with detail, and this one was exceptional in that way, the displays full of memorabilia and lighted signs, jerseys and stained glass. It took me a moment to compose my shot, adjusting my tripod in the cramped entryway, but I think my photo conveys the jumble of kitsch properly, the colorful neon lights and assortment of shapes beckoning the viewer to take it all in at a glance. Even the light streak coming off of the Coors Light sign (an artifact of my closing the shutter after a long exposure by winding to the next shot) works for me in this photo, adding just a little bit of distortion to what is otherwise an incredibly clear photo of disorganization. I was stunned by this photo when I developed and scanned it, and it still grabs my attention every time I look at it. For that reason I feel that I was successful in that try at night photography, and I learned again that nothing is out of my reach photographically, so long as I bring intention (and a good friend who knows more than I do!) to the attempt.

Mishawaka Sports Museum, Mishawaka, Indiana.

*an easy example is his Beverly Boulevard and La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, California, June 21, 1975, which he speaks about at length in his book Modern Instances.