May 2011

The Big Dipper
Wichita, Kansas
2011

A little kitchen constellation from Old Cowtown.

Daily Bread
Wichita, Kansas
2011

I like all the ready-made still life scenes you can find in museums like Old Cowtown. With the lighting and arrangement of the items already in place, all you have to do is pick the best angle for the shot.

Window Seat
Wichita, Kansas
2011

Still channeling Wright Morris here. I think my affinity for his photos, particularly those from The Home Place series, stems from my experiences at my grandparents farm when I was growing up. Even though Morris’s images were from a decade or so earlier than my first memories, much in the photos of the house decor as well as the barns and outbuildings from The Home Place have a familiar feel to them–so much so I can sometimes envision my grandparents just out of view around the corner. And one of his few photos with an actual person in it, Uncle Harry Entering Barn, could almost pass for one of my Grandad Duff in his blue denim chore coat heading out to his own barn in the morning. All this perhaps explains why making similar images of my own comes so easily to me. In fact in my early days as a teenage photographer, long before I’d ever heard of Wright Morris, I took a lot of photos at my grandparents farm. I don’t have many left and few of those have been scanned, but you can see one of my favorites here.

Parlor View
Wichita, Kansas
2011

Another Morris-esque image. Wright Morris was a master at depicting home life while very seldom including actual people in his images.

Placeholder
Wichita, Kansas
2011

I think I must have been channeling Wright Morris when I took this photo.

Alley View
Wichita, Kansas
2011

The back side of some of the houses at Wichita’s Old Cowntown.

Don’t Visit at Night
Wichita, Kansas
2011

This is actually a replica of an early mansion once stood in Wichita and it houses the administration offices of the Wichita Old Cowtown museum. To me, especially with the foreboding sky in the background, it looks like something from a scary movie–the kind of place you ought not go to at night, even or especially if it is storming out. Kind of like that house at the Bates Motel.

The House at the Bates Motel
from the movie Psycho

All Sales Cash
Boise City, New Mexico
2011

Cash flow at the Boise City grain elevator seems to have been a little tight as of late. (Just for the record, I’m not 100% positive this photo was taken at Boise City since I forgot to write it down. But looking at a map of the route I was on and the time of day, I’m pretty sure that’s the correct location.)

Hands On
Taos, New Mexico
2011

A rather unusually decorated door at Taos Pueblo.

Pueblo Bonito
Chaco Canyon, New Mexico
2011

I found it quite interesting that this 600 room Anasazi dwelling was constructed in the same time frame as the castles in Wales I’ve been to. In a number of ways, the Welsh could have learned quite a bit from the Anasazi builders–I never saw corners of castles in Wales as sharp and well-defined as those at Pueblo Bonito. On the other hand the Anasazi didn’t seem to be much into steps, preferring ladders instead I guess.