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Grid + dumpsters
Sure, this looks like just a picture of a window grid and some trash dumpsters. It looks so much like that, in fact, that’s even what I titled this post.
But here’s something else: that building is the church my family went to when I was a kid. It felt funny to be back – sort of like I’d never been there before but also like I’d never even left. I saw the windows of my second grade Sunday school class (presided over by the formidable Mrs. Brenneman, whose husband died unexpected when I was in high school and my dad got the call during supper). I saw the lawn where the vacation Bible school kids played before they went inside to have snacks of sugar cookies and KoolAid. The fellowship hall porch where my new husband and I were pelted with birdseed (no rice allowed) after our wedding reception. The store where a kid named Morris would sneak away to during services, to buy candy with his collection plate money.
It was an odd little journey that I went on, for a few minutes the other evening.
Lubbock, Texas
photographed 9.23.2016
They say this place is haunted
No, really, that’s what they say.
We didn’t go there to see ghosts, which may be why we didn’t spot any. (None, so far, have shown up on the photos I made, either.)
The best part, other than this very cool trestle, was when this woman stood in a low spot that was still damp from a flood recently, and said there was an “odd smell” right there, which she described as “musty,” and that she was pretty sure the smell was evidence of ghosts. Maybe I’m just too literal, because I sort of thought the odd, musty smell was probably from the flooded ground and waterlogged plants and so forth. The way I see it, at least one of us is wrong.
Lubbock, Texas
photographed 9.23.2016
A sense of abandonment
I rented a (very) wide angle lens*, and spent a good part of the weekend putting it through its paces. Now, you already know how much I love shooting interiors of empty places, so you won’t be surprised that I really, really like shooting them with (very) wide angle lenses.
Anyway, I was pretty fond of the interior of this place; I like all the curves and how they’re offset by that one, stark shelving unit on one side and by the graphic border design on the other.
Lubbock, Texas
photographed 9.23.2016
*18mm – so wide it almost could see around corners.
Some things defy explanation
I have no idea. Not even one.
But this is odd, to say the least. And there are so many odd things to pick from, too. Why are his eyes different colors? What’s with that mustache? Is really wearing two left shoes? And if so, why? A stuffed frog? Does he have very tiny hands? Who’s the dapper gentleman with the pipe down there on the floor?
Why? WHY?
Ordway, Colorado
photographed 9.4.2016
False Promises
That hand-lettered sign on the door indicates hours for the pool. But I can promise you that it’s wrong – that pool’s been closed for a while.
Boise City, Oklahoma
photographed 8.30.2016
