Monthly Archives: August 2024
one of us was confused
“So, I was drivin’ up through that Big Texan place and I swear there was a gal practically LAYING DOWN in a puddle. And she was holdin’ a camera, too. It’s the gol-darn truth. Mebbe she had one a them sunstrokes or sumpthin.” -this guy to his buddies
Amarillo, Texas
photographed 8.4.2024
hat/train
I feel like many of you woke up this morning wondering just how far down a dirt road I’d drive in reverse to get back to a cowboy hat that was nailed to a fence post.
All the way, my friends, all the way.
Deaf Smith County, Texas
photographed 8.4.2024
the dawn of the adventure
Sometimes the most random events end up connecting themselves in ways that you couldn’t even have imagined, but when you think back on everything it somehow seems perfectly logical and even inevitable.
This is one of those things. I’ll spare you the whole chronology, and will say that this moment captured right here is the result of a bunch of pieces of things that started lining themselves up fifteen years ago.
This was start of a big adventure, when my friends Don Toothaker and Chuck Doughty came to Texas from Massachusetts* and we spent a delightful run of days driving around, stopping for photographs, laughing, talking, stopping for photographs, and then, when we thought about it, we’d also stop for photographs.
It was the best time. And we hope it was the first time of a series of similar drives.
Lubbock County, Texas
photographed 8.3.2024
*Ha! Ha! Yes! I did get them to come to Texas in August!!
not exactly news
Yes. Littlefield IS a dying town. It’s a shame, too, because I know for sure it used to have a vibrant (and award-winning!) downtown. My grandpa lived north of town and a big deal for us was to go see him and sometimes meet up with my Aunt Elizabeth and my cousins – who drove in from Earth, as one does – to go shopping in downtown.
But don’t planning your own shopping trip: practically all the buildings along Phelps Avenue are occupied by only debris and pigeons.
Littlefield, Texas
photographed 7.26.2023
this ought to have been in Brownfield
We are right in the middle of what I like to call the Truth in Naming Belt: we’ve got towns called Levelland, Brownfield, Shallowater, Earth, Plainview, Plains, Sundown. And those names are accurate.
Anyway, although I spotted this practically monochromatic scene in Littlefield, I sort of think it needs to be in Brownfield…
Littlefield, Texas
photographed 7.26.2024
One Day | One Image 