Rediscovering the Familiar - Rolls 109 & 110
As I began thinking about what I would like to photograph for What My Left Hand is Doing, the thought occurred to me to start in familiar locations, places I'd already been to or pass through every day. It's easy to take locations like this for granted; something I've seen a million times has the tendency to fade into the background after a while, and I may become blinded to something beautiful right in front of me. With this thought in mind, I took the first photo for this project in the photo lab at Gene's Camera Store, where I, as the lab manager, work five days a week. I'd seen the afternoon light play along the walls every afternoon for three years by that time, and I think I captured the simultaneous order and chaos well, befitting a location I know like the back of my hand. The specificity of the faces on the wall (old ID photos of my coworkers) and the lab coat with our store's name bind this photo to a particular place, yet the jumble of boxes on the shelves and the fire extinguisher sign could be found in any number of small businesses across the country. This demonstrates the scope of my philosophy of the Ordered World; it pervades all things, elevating them in the context of an order that supersedes them, yet without erasing the individual characteristics of a particular scene or time.
The Photo Lab, Gene's Camera Store, South Bend, Indiana.
That evening, towards sundown, I took my camera out to the Andrews University Farm, a place I'd been to countless times during my years in college, but rarely since, and almost never with my camera.* Walking out behind some shipping containers, just as I used to with my friends, I came across the graffiti seen below, with the words "God is" above several spray-painted hearts. First of all, what hilariously Adventist graffiti, to spray "God is love" on campus property. But it felt oddly appropriate to find that, there, in the spot where I would come down on Sabbath afternoons after church and hang out with friends, jumping from trailer to trailer or opening up unlocked doors to see what was inside. I was very religious at that time, something I have since left behind; yet I still believe that God is love, and try to live my life with that knowledge in mind, same as I did then. I absolutely felt something spiritual in that moment—the world still and calm around me, silent except for the voices of those who had opened the trailer door, just around the corner but not intruding on the scene. This moment was a good reminder that I may have changed since those college days, but my sense of who I am and what my purpose is hasn't!
God Is, Andrews University Farm, Berrien Springs, Michigan.
I continued exploring the farm as the evening wore on, shooting several other photos I am happy with, including three extractions and a landscape shot. When I load a roll of film into my camera I enter into a state of heightened awareness (a phrase I'm borrowing from Stephen Shore, who used it to describe taking photos with a 4x5 view camera) and remain that way until my roll is complete; rarely do I leave a roll sitting in my camera for too long. It helps that I only have ten photos on a roll, of course—I cannot shoot 36 photos on a whim anymore! But ten is the perfect number, allowing me to explore a scene fully while remaining intentional about how many photos I'm taking and what I choose to shoot. Most cases, as happened with this roll, I get several photos that I think work well, with a couple standouts that are particularly good.
Andrews University Farm, Berrien Springs, Michigan.
Extraction—Andrews University Farm, Berrien Springs, Michigan.
Extraction—Andrews University Farm, Berrien Springs, Michigan.
Untitled.
Sometimes that's not the case, though, and I only get one or two photos that I like, or even none! The next roll I shot is one of those cases, where there was only one photo that I thought really came out; however, this doesn't make the experience of shooting the whole roll not worthwhile. A couple of days after shooting the first set of photos, I went to the town of Niles after work, walking around with my camera and tripod setup, seeing what I could find. I'd been to Niles many, many times before, and yet I found myself on a few streets that I'd never consciously seen, which allowed me to take them in with fresh eyes and notice the Cowboy Saloon, a closed bar with overgrown weeds and a cracked parking lot. I first saw the sign poking over the building itself, interesting enough to attempt a photo of it. I wanted to get a shot straight on, looking down the street, but wasn't happy with how the composition was coming out. I then realized that if I moved slightly back and to the side I could capture both the sign and the road in harmony, so that there would be a greater depth and sense of movement to the photo than how I had originally composed it. As a bonus, I could now include another sign, for the Rusty Hooks shop, in the shot, which worked out perfectly! Shooting a roll that was otherwise mediocre became worth it for this photo alone; not only did I get a good photo, but I learned something about composition and how to get the shot that I wanted. Working on this project, therefore, had already begun to help me grow as a photographer!
Niles, Michigan.
*I really should have photographed here again a lot sooner; my very first good film photo, Super Heavy from Meet Me in the Forest, was taken on one of these shipping containers, demonstrating the potential of this location early on.