Streets of Philadelphia … A Visual Diary … Page 32 … Dark Street

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It’s the time of the season…..Um, can anyone tell me what that means? I haven’t a clue. They say there’s a rhythm to life and we should try to feel it and move along with it. Well, the dude or dudess that said that for the very first time. I mean the inventor of that phrase was not from Philly. Oh yeah, we have rhythm all over Philly and that’s the problem. Ya get to walking along and then this car stops at a light your at and this music, well, they call it music is blasting out of the car. I see this guy 3 blocks away and I hear his shit all over. His windows are up, OMG! My camera vibrates and screws come out. the lens rattles, I feel my insides shaking… I run to the market cause now I need a, well… relief. What’s this got to do with making pictures you ask? Oh, my friends. Fear not for I shall explain now. Lucky that here in Philly we have underground sanctuaries away from noisy musical cars and trucks. Of course underground they filled most of it with the aroma called, Essence of Human feces and urine.

So, I depend on these underground sanctuaries to find a new light. Above is just one view of these places.  The light is basically stable and controlled so you can see clearly into the darkness. We call these caverns, Concourses here in Philly. There are many  people living in these concourses and they be the concourse dwellers. I make photos down there a lot so I am a concourse shooter.

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Sometimes when I leave the concourse, I see an enigma. This could be the spirit of concourse dwellers past. Maybe it’s a ghost. Maybe just maybe it’s just a person coming in and I played with exposure to make that effect cause that’s what I see in my minds eye but remember my mind is on vacation so that means that my mind’s eye is now just my eye and well nah, that seems ridiculous. Why would I intentionally make a photo like like? My VA Doc says I don’t see these things anymore and when I do try to let it go away. I’m confused and actually I don’t care to analyze my photos cause I’m not a photo shrink and I accept my photos as they are after I make them ad they don’t need any explanation.

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(Conversation with a student I know for a long time.) Don, I have a question. Ok +++. What? Why come you always making these pictures that seem kinda odd? Um, they don’t seem odd to me. Well, they seem odd to me and to many others. Ummm, well that seems odd to me.

Maybe the better question is, why does your stuff seem normal and my stuff odd?

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I never sought to make odd photos. I never sought to fit into the crowd. I never sought to get approval on my work except for 2 ppl my entire life. Ding McNulty and Paul McGuirk. Neither are in my life anymore so I am alone and I wing it. I just feel my way, try to find something I can make a photo of and CLICK!

5 thoughts on “Streets of Philadelphia … A Visual Diary … Page 32 … Dark Street”

  1. I sometimes hear from people, that my photos are odd. I don’t mind that. They only don’t get the idea/intent of the author/photo so they just say…odd. It is odd that millions of people shoot same things again and again…flowers, birds, deer, Eiffel tower, landscapes…super odd and boring.

    There are different people with different likes. Bird shooter is likely to admire a photo of eagle rather than blurry, grainy and dark photo taken in the subway.

    Sorry. Just thinking out laud. Things I know already.

    Lately I was taking photos in underpass under the crossing in our town. We have just one, and no subway, but I have been there 4 times shooting during short period of time. It would be better if we had more underpasses, but I still explore this one that I know since I was a child.

    Last idea, I just received a print of a magazine with intereview with myself plus couple of my photos. It was in preparation for about 4 months or so. I am presented as a shooter of abandoned places, decay, periphery, new topographics. I believed in this and loved this theme. Shooting in peripherie almost daily last 2 or 3 years. Now my likes (mind, also changed with help of your blog) has changed and I have ambiguous feelings about that interview. I am glad I am featured, but I am not proud of photos and idea presented. I mean, photos looks nice, but I am not connected with my older stuff…

  2. I guess that’s why they say that you should first shoot for yourself. I sometimes let other people’s opinions get to me but then I have to remind myself that while other people’s opinions are valuable, in the end you have to make yourself happy. If you’re shooting for other people than your passion is eventually going to disappear.

    1. Absolutely right on the money. It’sniceto have people like your work but even more so if they like your work and you do it for you.

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