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This is just a block away from my office, so I drive by it often. And for some reason, April 16 was the day I noticed it and recognized it for what it was: a photographic opportunity. So on April 17 I brought my camera to work.
(I also spent some time that day driving around, seeking a particular body shop that I had very specific recollections of. My memories were that it was a corrugated metal building, that it had an unevenly-painted business name right on the metal, that there was a car – an old Impala? – parked in front, that it was on my right as I faced east. I never found it. I looked until I gave up. And that’s when I remembered a particularly vivid dream about being out photographing. So maybe that elusive body shop was just a dream?)
(Welcome to my brain – it’s weird in there.)
Levelland, Texas
photographed 4.17.2024
it’s curtains for this place
This poor old building….it’s got a notice from the City of Levelland posted on the front door telling the owner the place has been condemned and will be demolished.
For quite a few years, the building was the location of a business called – according to the spray-painted sign on the front – the Lawn Mower Fixer. Mr. LM Fixer often changed his business phone number, if the frequently re-spray-painted numbers on the brick wall were any indication. Sometimes I’d see him out front, looking over the mowers that had been left to be fixed.
But I guess he was eventually so successful that all the mowers in town were fixed and the source for his business fell away.
Or something like that.
Levelland, Texas
photographed 2.10.2024
a job to do
This horse and rider had a job to do – to show the horse to its best advantage in front of a bunch of bidders – and they both seemed to be real clear on what they were doing.
Random (to me) auctioneer comment: Not enough horse for him to go Denver.*
Mallet Event Center
Levelland, Texas
photographed 2.10.2024
*He may not have been referring to this horse. The combination of photos/notes/memory aren’t real clear.
the action moved quickly
Oooh, look! An action shot at the auction. A little bit of auction action, if you will.
And another random (to me) comment from the auctioneer: There ain’t nothin’ wrong in drivin’ around with a new pickup, a purty woman, and a nice gray horse.
Mallet Event Center
Levelland, Texas
photographed 2.10.2024
the spotter
This auction spotter was entertaining to watch as he coaxed higher and higher bids from the audience. His job involved shouting, a variety of gestures, and once – when he couldn’t get the bidder to go up another $500 or $1,000 to secure the bid – he tossed his program into the air in exasperation.
Pro tip: if you keep your camera up to your eye and keep shooting (or acting like you are), it’s hard to accidentally bid on something.
Random (to me) comment from the auctioneer (referring to a horse, not the spotter)(I think): He knows how to drink water in a strange place.
Mallet Event Center
Levelland, Texas
photographed 2.10.2024
One Day | One Image 