Blog Archives
Cadillac Ranch, 1
This public art installation has been around since 1974, when a group known as the Ant Farm stuck 10 Cadillacs in the ground on the outskirts of Amarillo. The cars – which represented ten models during the big-tail-fin era of Cadillacs – were put in at the same angle as the great pyramid at Giza.
In the 1990s, the installation was moved a few miles further from town: development had caught up to it. At some point along the way, it became a thing to spray paint the cars and at this point they appear to be more paint than car.
You can read more about it here.
Or, if you prefer, you can listen to Bruce Springsteen sing about it.
Amarillo, Texas
photographed 2.22.2014
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The reasons why:
1. The water damage on the wooden joists
2. The tiny bit of a tree poking up over the roof
3. The rectangles. All those rectangles!
4. The address over the door.
5. The reflections in the window that do not include me.
6. The tenacious weeds growing up in the expansion joints of the concrete.
Santa Rosa, New Mexico
photographed 5.4.2013
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
