26 March 2007

I'm walking down that empty road, and it ain't empty now because I'm on it






Although I rarely intend to take photos of people, I invariably end up taking a few on any of my photographic excursions. The top photo in this post was taken in Pulaski; the guy in the photo asked me for a cigarette, and I asked him if I could take his photo. He hesistated, during which time he may have considered kicking my ass, and then agreed. The girls initially thought I was a journalist, though they probably weren't sure what kind of wacky publication would be interested in photos of cracked sidewalks and empty storefronts. The guy below the girls runs the All Country Bar in Pulaski--I've been told to avoid it on weekends, but it looked like a comfortable dark hole to crawl into during a stressful weekday. I met the last guy in Radford at the abandoned foundry building, and you can probably meet him too if you go down there around 5 or 6 o'clock one evening. He's a nice guy, with many stories to tell.

3 comments:

Hoarse Whisperer said...

You've got a good hand with that camera. Nice shots!

Anonymous said...

i really appreciate the background: "reflected city" in the two portraits. a nice balance between total emptiness (portraits taken out of context/environment) vs. an image too busy to seriously recognize the individual(s) or expression.......that said...i am uncertain the portraits/subject are equally successful.....flash spot a little distracting in single male image and the snapshot look to the smiling teens seems to be a conditioned response. say cheese!!!!!!!! the shadow cast in the fella by the foundry is a beauty. great stuff overall, being out there, looking for answers to questions we often do not know---until the light is shining or we cross paths with other counterparts to the pictures we create....twp

mark said...

thanks for the comments. i agree about the flash being distracting in the image of the guy. i doubt i could get rid of it altogether, but I could probably doctor the photo to look better if i had photoshop. from what i've read on the internet, doctoring digital images with photo software seems to be the norm, even with professionals. i'm not sure how i feel about it, though. if it makes the image look better (i.e.--colors/contrast more true to life) i suppose it could be okay, but i really don't like the idea of spending hours doctoring the photos.