Blog Archives
Underneath the lights
You know how I always like to go around back when I am shooting, just to see what I can find? I also try to remember to look up. Which is how I found this interesting array of lightbulbs hiding (in plain sight!) under the marquee of the Mesa Theatre in Clovis, New Mexico.
I wasn’t able to find anything much out about the Mesa, other than it had a fire in 1948 and was rebuilt. Perhaps my Research Department can take over from here?
Clovis, New Mexico
photographed 5.25.2013
Christ Church Gate, from the inside
A detail from the wall surrounding Canterbury Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, just next to the Christ Church Gate.
It’s hard to comprehend how old the Cathedral is; on the website, the history of the Cathedral is broken down into “Origins” and “More Recent Times” – the latter section picking up in 1540. (The town I live in wasn’t even founded until 1890.) A comment on the same website puts it further into perspective: the Cathedral stands as a place where prayer to God has been offered daily for over 1,400 years.
Goodness.
(The gate was constructed in 1517, and has undergone several renovations through the centuries, including the removal of the battlements “to allow some residents in the vicinity to see the time by the Cathedral clock”, an accommodating change. I found no mention of the state of that window, seemingly stuck forever halfway between open and closed.)
Canterbury Cathedral
Canterbury, UK
photographed 10.17.2007
Diagonal
Just across the road from this place, there’s a little building that I am sure used to be a church. There’s not a sign in front, and the maps I’ve found don’t provide any information, but I am just certain that’s what it used to be. Maybe it’s the dimensions of the building – longer than it is wide. Maybe it’s just me, making up some “facts.” But anyway, the front door is locked, with a rusting wheel pushed against it for good measure.
Around to the side, a new-ish metal roof contrasts with the peeling paint of the stucco wall and boarded up windows. And an electrical line, and its shadow, cut through the scene. The side door? It was so secure it didn’t even have a doorknob on the outside!
Maple, Texas
photographed 2.16.2014
What happens when high schools die
According to this site, the school in Pettit has been closed since the 1960s, when it merged with the school in the nearby town of Levelland. Closing the school is generally the dying gasp of a town; of course the declines don’t start with a school closure, but seem be exacerbated by them.
Nowadays, the old school buildings are fenced and cattle and goats wander freely around what’s left of the place.
I can’t explain the wrecked pickup.
Pettit, Texas
photographed 2.16.2014
The remains, in the day
As far as I know, no one has counted the number of abandoned farmhouses around here. But from what I know, it would be a huge number. Places like this one are all over the place, with now-dead trees clawing at the stucco, with windows gone, with roofs collapsing in, with complete ruin just a matter of time.
The ones that have a fence around them or a No Trespassing sign I tend to skip: I’m a dedicated photographer and all, but I am not that dedicated.
This place was right by the dirt road that heads east out of Pep, and there was no fence, so I stomped through the scratchy remains of last summer’s weeds and had a look. The remains of the house were pretty sad – some ragged curtains that’ve been sawed down from constant blowing against broken glass, a kitchen counter that was saggy from water damage (it must be very old water damage: it hasn’t rained in ages), and the usual random piles of crap (literally and figuratively) that these kinds of places tend to have. As you can tell from the slits of light against the interior walls, the roof has holes. A roof with holes is a roof that’s not going to last. And once the roof goes….
Pep, Texas
photographed 2.16.2014
