{"id":448,"date":"2022-08-31T11:01:37","date_gmt":"2022-08-31T16:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/darkroomdetritus.com\/?p=448"},"modified":"2022-08-31T14:49:31","modified_gmt":"2022-08-31T19:49:31","slug":"the-photos-that-grow-on-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/darkroomdetritus.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/31\/the-photos-that-grow-on-you\/","title":{"rendered":"The photos that grow on you"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When I pulled this image\u2019s negative from the tank and held it in front of the bathroom light fixture, I was pleased. Not because I thought it was a great shot worthy of sharing and would deliver me \u201clikes\u201d and beaucoup<\/em> bucks via print sales\u2014nah, it was merely proof I momentarily overcame my lack of large-format experience to mostly accomplish what I set out to do: alter the focal plane via manipulating the lens board on my Pacemaker Speed Graphic to highlight the platform area of an abandoned train station. A bit o\u2019 tilt shift, or as the large-format practitioners who like to over-share their technical knowledge call it, practicing the Scheimpflug principle<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the thing that some use to change the focal plane to produce an effect that renders certain objects like toys within a distorted or out-of-focus background\u2014usually via a tilt-shift lens on a camera body (or a tilt-shift effect\/filter in an app or photo-editing software). Or, as landscape and architecture photographers would use the process with a view or field camera, allowing tilt and swing movements with the front (lens) and rear (film) standards of the camera, to render an entire scene in sharp focus, front to back, top to bottom, and, in the case of a tall building, without distortion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my case, I wanted a narrow line of focus through the negative, from close distance to far. I wasn\u2019t sure if that was possible, in part because of the limited movements of my Speed Graphic, and because this was the first time I chose to try fiddling with the front standard. Process-wise, don\u2019t let anyone tell you it\u2019s \u201cdifficult.\u201d What you need, however, is patience, an expectation of failure (at first) and a loupe or magnifying glass to aid with the ground-glass focussing. That\u2019s it. Oh, did I mention practice? That would be something I still need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyhoo. This photograph has grown on me. I find my eyes sticking to it as I scroll through images. It relaxes me, which is a strange thing to consider, because the photo doesn\u2019t make me feel particularly \u201cgood.\u201d I caught the scene in June of 2020, when we were getting out of the house after the first months of pandemic, and the first weeks of good weather after a long winter and spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time scientists were figuring out that group activities outside were considerably less risky (to the point of almost nil) than inside. I am reminded of that because, while I was setting up for my station shots, an aerobics class had started in an adjacent abandoned parking lot. Now that would have been a worthy shot for the times, but, would a group of women, finally out of the house, in an area they thought far from prying eyes, would appreciate a middle-aged man setting up a large camera on a tripod\u2014unannounced\u2014to document the scene?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Um, no. Then I thought of a spot on a bridge a short distance away, where the figures would be sufficiently an anonymous, and the spread of the abandoned property would lend something to the moment in history, but, I forgot on my way out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So. Back to the photo. Another reason it gives me pause is it\u2019s a reminder of our overall stupidity as a planning species. Perhaps it\u2019s a particular American trait, as we tend to abandon things that fall out of fashion even for a moment. This particular station was built in 1978, as St. Paul closed down service at its historic Union Depot (built in 1881, destroyed by fire in 1913, and rebuilt in 1917), located in its historic Lowertown neighborhood adjacent to the Mississippi River. That area of St. Paul (and a lot of downtown, for that matter) was neglected and large, brick and stone warehouses abandoned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The phenomenon wasn\u2019t unusual, as many cities across the country suffered for decades as people (read, mostly white folks) and businesses left for the suburbs\u2014it was a process that started not long after WWII. And in the 1950s, many cities across the country ripped out street car rail lines as the automobile industry forced its powerful hand to become the primary transportation method\u2014in town and for cross-country road trips. Throw in air travel becoming more affordable, and passenger rail service across the spectrum declined, and rail stations from the single forlorn stop in the small town to larger hubs in cities were neglected and abandoned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then people, perhaps with time on their hands stuck in traffic, realized that abandoning rail as transport wasn\u2019t wise. Now cities are back laying track. And trains, especially for regional travel, suddenly make sense again with airport delays due to security checks and cancellations. Heck, we might even catch up to the rest of the world and build some high-speed rail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was also the general sense that our urban cores should not be abandoned. In St. Paul that meant drawing people back to the city to live. With that, came a restoration\u2014and reuse\u2014of historic, functional properties. The Union Depot was restored, with a station for the new light rail line plunked in front, Amtrak returned, and also Greyhound opened a new station within.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Union Depot reopened in 2014, the \u201cnew\u201d station, the one I was photographing that day in 2020 in the middle of an industrial park, was shut down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I did photograph the terminal building of that vacant station itself, but, not in any great detail. It resembles any lame, late-\u201870s\/early-\u201880s building: a box with a boxy overhang as a sort of awning. Peeking through a window I saw (predictably) a hung-ceiling collapsing with the weight of water damage, old carpet stained beneath as if a giant lost bladder control. Absolutely nothing interesting remained as far as signage or furniture. Maybe all that\u2019s interesting in itself, but I wasn\u2019t feeling it at that moment. Perhaps one day I\u2019ll wander back to reconsider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this photo\u2014that one up there\u2014I like it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Camera: 1948 Pacemaker Speed Graphic 4×5
Film: Ilford HP5
Lens: Kodak Ektar 127mm<\/p>\n

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When I pulled this image\u2019s negative from the tank and held it in front of the bathroom light fixture, I was pleased. Not because I thought it was a great shot worthy of sharing and would deliver me \u201clikes\u201d and beaucoup bucks via print sales\u2014nah, it was merely proof I momentarily overcame my lack of… Read More »The photos that grow on you<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47,20,12],"tags":[52,53,22,21,54,26,55],"class_list":["post-448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-large-format","category-photo-journal","tag-4x5-film","tag-film-photography","tag-large-format","tag-pacemaker-speed-graphic","tag-scheimpflug-principle","tag-st-paul","tag-tilt-shift"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"rise-blocks_total_comments":0,"rise-blocks_categories":[{"term_id":47,"name":"Blog","slug":"blog","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":47,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":7,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":47,"category_count":7,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Blog","category_nicename":"blog","category_parent":0},{"term_id":20,"name":"Large Format","slug":"large-format","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":20,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":12,"count":3,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":20,"category_count":3,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Large Format","category_nicename":"large-format","category_parent":12},{"term_id":12,"name":"Photo Journal","slug":"photo-journal","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":12,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":11,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":12,"category_count":11,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Photo Journal","category_nicename":"photo-journal","category_parent":0}],"rise-blocks_excerpt":"When I pulled this image\u2019s negative from the tank and held it in front of the bathroom light fixture, I was pleased. Not because I thought it was a great shot worthy of sharing and would deliver me \u201clikes\u201d and beaucoup bucks via print sales\u2014nah, it was merely proof I momentarily overcame my lack of large-format experience to mostly accomplish..","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/darkroomdetritus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Abandoned-Amtrak-Station-FEAT.jpg?fit=1200%2C500&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkroomdetritus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkroomdetritus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkroomdetritus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkroomdetritus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkroomdetritus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/darkroomdetritus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":463,"href":"https:\/\/darkroomdetritus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448\/revisions\/463"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkroomdetritus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkroomdetritus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkroomdetritus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkroomdetritus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}