Blog Archives
That wall
That wall.
It has a lot of things to like. The graffiti-control efforts that are just about intrusive as the graffiti was. The OUT left over from some kind of warning. The angle of demolition. The stripes from the poles and wires. I really liked that wall.
(See that black container? Those are the municipal garbage bins. They are round, and not very heavy. And also, the wind flings them all over the place. Just in case you wondered.)
Roswell, New Mexico
photographed 5.10.2014
More of the same
Just for a change of pace, I decided to stop and take a picture of an old building in a little town. Ha! Ha! Of course that’s not a change of pace – it’s what I do.
I capped off a great day of shooting in Roswell the other day by making some additional stops on the way home, including at this fantastic little place in Tatum, New Mexico.
To be fair to Tatum, the town’s population is increasing, up 15% between the 2000 and 2010 census counts; at last count, it stood at 798 people, which is the opposite of most places I seem to end up.
I did not see that many people while I was in town.
Tatum, New Mexico
photographed 5.11.14
Why I love my job
My co-worker, whom I will call Brad (but only because that’s his name), stopped by my office the other day and told me, “I found a place you’ll love. Tokio. Between Brownfield and Plains.”
My co-workers are good about giving me tips on where to shoot; another one, that I’ll call Alfonso (because he gets called that a lot, even though his name is Adolfo), travels around almost every weekend and texts me photos of things he sees that he thinks I’ll like.
It’s sort of fancy, I think, to have a whole team of location scouts. And it’s one of the reasons I love my job.
Anyway, the other day when I was coming back from my photo adventure in Roswell, I remembered what Brad told me, and pulled off the road to check out Tokio. He was right: I did love it. I loved it even thought the wind was blowing and there was a cloud of dust headed my way. (You can see it in this picture, that gritty looking stuff behind the house.)
Tokio, Texas
photographed 5.11.2014
Einstein was here
I mean, I guess he was. That’s the only explanation I have for that graffiti.
Chaves County, New Mexico
photographed 5.11.2014
“I almost cussed.”
Another shot from Dougherty, this one of the remains of the school, which had a natural-gas explosion one day and just hasn’t been the same since.
My traveling companion and I stopped to look around, and just after we arrived, a man in a pick-up pulled up to see what we were doing. (I am almost positive his wife sent him.) He was very chatty, and we learned a lot from him:
1. He was working as a state trooper in Lubbock, about 70 miles away, when the school exploded, and was sent over to help. The explosion was during a school day, and there were several injuries but no one was killed.
2. He lives in Doughtery now, runs some cattle, and is scared that the drought will never end.
3. Used to, back in the day before cell phones, when “the boys” were done with the branding, they could relax over some “cold beers” (which he said like it was one word) before heading home, but nowadays, their wives start calling them and they can’t stay around as long.
(This comment came right after his wife called him to see what he’d found out about why the strangers were in town.)
4. He told us about an abandoned school in Roaring Springs, the next town over.
5. Then he told us about the last time there was a big rain. He said, “It was one-a those rains that came straight down for two, three days. That culvert in front of the house was full of weeds so that water wasn’t drainin’ and it kept gettin’ closer and closer to the house. Finally my wife sent me out there to fix it, and there I was, in my slicker and boots with rain runnin’ off my hat. I was pullin’ them tumbleweeds out-a that culvert. And I almost cussed the rain. Almost. But I didn’t.”
Dougherty, Texas
April 2, 2014
One Day | One Image 