Category Archives: architecture
Shooting Alpine photography contest
I am happy to announce that my photograph Balcony (Holland Hotel) was selected as a semifinalist in the annual Shooting Alpine competition.
If you are going to be in Alpine, Texas, this Friday and Saturday for the ARTWALK, you can see a photo slide show of the winners, finalists, semifinalists and other entries will be on display at GALERIA SIBLEY (103 W. Holland Ave). Otherwise, you can see it here.
PS – Thanks to my friend Mary Angel, who reminded me that I ought to enter!
Items of interest
Meanwhile, a few things at this abandoned gas station caught my attention.
* Those squarish shapes inside the scars of circles on the wall.
* The restrooms are off to the left, somewhere.
* God is love, according to the letters stuck on the plate glass window.
* Don’t those drapes seem a little formal for a gas station?
* That plant? There in the window on the left? It’s growing on the inside of the building, clinging to the drape. Sort of makes me worried about what the inside of the place looks like.
Valentine, Texas
photographed 8.16.2013
Auditorium
This was one of the first times I’d been brave enough to walk into an abandoned building to take some pictures. But I am glad I did: this place is boarded up now.
This place has an interesting history that involves millionaires, Postum, and planned communities. Wikipedia has this to say:
The rare motorist that happens to pass through the remote small town of Close City today may be unaware that, at the turn of the century, the town site was chosen as the original location of Post City, a model community and grand social experiment conceived by C. W. Post, an American breakfast cereal and foods manufacturer. In the early 1890s, Post developed a popular caffeine-free coffee substitute called Postum and later made a fortune on breakfast cereals such as Grape Nuts and Post Toasties. As Post’s wealth grew, his interests began to expand into other areas. One project that had always intrigued him was the creation of a planned community of model homes and industry. His success in the prepared foods industry provided the financial resources to make this dream a reality.
The Close City schoolhouse is two stories high; this auditorium is on the second floor. The building was in use from 1919 to 1965, when the school closed and students went to nearby Post, Texas, for school.
Close City School
Garza County, Texas
photographed 5.31.2010
It was one of those days
There are days when every single thing I see seems like it ought to be a photograph. Those days can be mentally exhausting. But they can be – and usually are – exhilarating. Those are the days when I just know that this is what I am supposed to be doing: wandering around, taking pictures.
This day was one of those days: this is the 12th picture I’ve posted that I took on August 16. And there’s surely more to come. August 16 was a very, very good day.
Marfa, Texas
photographed 8.16.2013
Vanishing point
Vanishing Point is a 1971 American action road movie starring Barry Newman, Cleavon Little and Dean Jagger. It has 3.5 stars here and 4 here. But that doesn’t have anything to do with this photos – just something Google found for me.
I like shooting wide-open spaces. But I also like the effects of shooting at close range in a narrow alley, which is what I did here, where the lines of the building, the door, the window, and the shadows from the power lines all converge somewhere down the alley – in a vanishing point, if you will.
Marfa, Texas
photographed 1.18.2013
One Day | One Image 