Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Monday, April 28, 2014

ENCO

Waterbury, Connecticut

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Wall, I

Waterbury, Connecticut

Friday, April 25, 2014

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

I've Been Doing Building Portraits for a Long Time

Buckeye, West Virginia

This 8x10 shot from early in 2002, near the beginning of my serious effort to photograph the American drive-in theater and its resonance with the varied regional landscape, has always been a favorite. Which might explain why I find that people, everyone more or less who looks at this project, talks about abandoned drive-in theaters, when, in fact, the majority of the pictures are of theaters that are, or at least were at the time, fully operational.

The other problem this picture brings up is, there are at least two other pictures from this venue that are nearly as good. As I work toward the design of the DI book, the problem is whether to aim at a Spartan presentation of only a few, or go for a really thick book with a whole lot of pictures. I never set out to document all of them, but I find myself wanting the book to be as comprehensive as possible. I've shot somewhere around 250 theaters though...

As an aside, here is a cut from my Shooting Log:

Buckeye drive-in. Complete surprise, clearly derelict but the screen is in surprisingly nice shape. There’s a tiny barbershop adjacent to the entry, and the barber confirms it’s a DI.  A guy hanging out in the shop says he helped build the drive-in when he was a teen-ager, back in the fifties. Another says it stopped operating twenty years ago. Barber says the odd thing is that the screen was blown over by a storm, then rebuilt for $25K, but then the theater never reopened with the newly built screen. Caravans for a carnival or street vendor fair are parked all over the lot along with decrepit projection house and very derelict ticket booth.11:00, five different views including some from the back of the lot with 14 inch, an approach I haven’t tried before, then closer views with 240. Buckeye has a post office—in a trailer, and not a new trailer.

Fast Food

Waterbury, Connecticut

It was some sort of fried chicken place, not the biggest chain, and seemed to go through several re-openings over the past ten or fifteen years, but it's back empty again.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Monday, April 21, 2014

Waterbury, Connecticut

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Houses with Dishes

Waterbury, Connecticut

Click on the image area to get a larger and more legible version of the file.

Friday, April 11, 2014

Thursday, April 10, 2014

With and (Almost) Without Dodge

Torrington, Connecticut

One second, according to the camera clock, but probably less than that.


Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Monday, April 7, 2014

Sunday, April 6, 2014

New Name, Same Management

Naugatuck, Connecticut

A notice that damage to property is prohibited seems a bit superfluous.

Click on the picture to see a larger, more legible version.

Saturday, April 5, 2014

Woodbury, Connecticut

The first floor is a large liquor store, while the second floor at the rear of the building is office space that seems to have been vacant for years.

Friday, April 4, 2014

Yellow Brick Building

Naugatuck, Connecticut

The building houses a small, old fashioned offset and letterpress printing firm.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

PIZZA PALACE

Naugatuck, Connecticut

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Gray-Green House

Kingston, New York

With five electric meters. Also, winter light, even in the last week of March.