Monday, May 28, 2012

Every working day I drive slowly across the Hudson River on the Bear Mountain Bridge.  It is a brief trip spanning the river just below Fort Clinton where the American revolutionary army belted a huge chain just below and across the water to stop British warships from any further northward progress. Just beyond the bridge is West Point. (Sometimes I'm saluted on this bridge by cadets on their morning run, the most polite and respectful young adults you could ever want to meet.)  

There are no end of mornings that take one's breath away with their beauty here.  Clouds, mist, fog, wind, haze, snow, rain, and all their nuances are stunning, but while driving, not possible to photograph.   Today (May 28th) I didn't have to make the trip due to the Memorial Day holiday, but I did anyway just in case. I didn't think it likely there would be much to see as day dawned in warm haze.  I nearly turned around to go home when I saw fog in the distance. Yes!!  So, I finished the trip.  Here are three from the two rolls I used. If I could stop every morning that seduced me visually, I'd go into debt buying film.  (Yeah...I know...I could shoot digitally for next to nothing.  Sorry...not interested.)











Monday, May 7, 2012

The party tent images below were made adjacent to this photograph.  The Bethlehem Steel Works was an enormous industry in its time.  This photograph was made at the end of the sprawling acres of stacks, and 'ovens' that cooked the raw materials, separated the metal ore from other ingredients, and blended metals to finally make steel. In our era of sterile virtual realities, it's important to remember the gritty, sweaty, smokey, industrial sinew that once polluted air and water, but rolled out the material that built this country. 


Thursday, May 3, 2012

It has not only been a while since I've posted a photograph here, but an even longer while since I've posted something new.  These three images were made on April 29th, in Bethlehem, Pa. beside a marvelous relic of rust belt industry, a steel mill.  It is awesome in scale and complexity, but I just didn't have the time before the concert we had come for to photograph it with the intimacy that can only come from time spent. But, along side the mill, there was a party tent that had been set up for an event yet to occur, and was completely available visually.  In the time we had to wait before the concert, I was able to burn two rolls of film.  Here are three from those rolls.