The Other Place
A Photographic Journey In The Alleys Of St. Joseph, Michigan
Box Factory For The Arts - Solo Show - May 4 - June 30, 2018
A Photographic Journey In The Alleys Of St. Joseph, Michigan
Living in St. Joseph, Michigan our sense of place is well defined. We have a beautiful
downtown, a thriving tourist trade, and quiet tree lined streets. Our beaches and waterfronts are
well documented by locals and tourists. We are blessed with a sense of place we can be proud
of, one that is iconic, beautiful, and comfortable.
And yet in parts of our community there is another place, often overlooked and under-
appreciated; our alleys. For those that live or work where there are alleys, the narrow passages
become utilitarian. We drive through them, we haul our trash to them, we store things in them,
and we park in them. Seldom is the alley side of a house maintained to the same standard as
the front. Often the pavement is a mixture of concrete, asphalt, brick pavers, potholes, puddles,
and gravel that would never be permitted on the street in the front of the house. In this sense,
alleys are the underbelly of the place that we think of as home, and perhaps a more true
representation of our self image.
Even so, alleys are still the spine of the neighborhood communities that have them.
Relationships tend to be closer, for better or worse, with neighbors that share the alley than
those across the street. Perhaps the shared intimacy of the slightly less kept side of our lives
breeds friendship and understanding?
My artistic fascination with alleys began on a rainy day as I walked in the alley between State
Street and Main Street. Looking down I noticed pools of water held between the textures of
brick, gravel, asphalt and concrete. Reflected in the water were the overhead power lines, cars,
houses, and trees. These pools seemed like windows into another world, and embracing the
beauty of these pools allowed me to see even more beauty in alleys. My eye found the pattern
of a broken window pane, the geometry of a fence rising from a mass of overgrown vegetation,
and the play of light on a brick wall covered in ivy.
Alleys are a part of our place that will probably never be identified in the mainstream
iconography of St. Joseph. They are, however, a part of our place and who we are as a
community. It is my hope that these images will help you see the quirky beauty that I see there,
or perhaps in the words of Edwin Land:
“There is no greater esthetic power than the conversion of the familiar into the
unbelievably new.”
Edwin Land, Introduction to: Ansel Adams – Singular Images
(Adams, Ansel, Morgan & Morgan, 1974)
Why Film?
All of the images in this show were shot on film, and all but the large composite image were printed in the darkroom using traditional silver-based methods. Film photography is making a comeback, and this is actually one of the best times ever to be a film photographer. New films are being released, old ones rediscovered, and Polaroid is actually making instant film again. Film cameras sell for a fraction of what they once sold for and it is easy to amass an impressive film camera collection.
For me film has always been more creative. There are several reasons for this, not the least of which is that film is a limited resource. A roll of film costs between $3 to $10, and will shoot anywhere from 1 to 36 exposures. The limited nature of film forces me to really look at what I am shooting and ask myself if it is worth shooting, and how will the image relate to what I want to convey artistically. Evaluating the scene forces me to see details that would have escaped me had I just shot it digitally.
Another reason that film is more creative for me is that each camera has its own unique character and they each influence how I shoot, and how I saw what I saw. I used seven
different cameras to shoot the images for this show, and each was chosen for
some characteristic that was unique to that camera. For example, the Holga
120N is a new $30 camera in the “toy camera” genre. It is very poorly made, the lens is plastic and really only sort of sharp in the center, and they leak light unless you tape the back shut. But the images they produce have a dreamy quality to them that made them an instant hit with fine art photographers. Knowing the limitations of the Holga changes the way I look at the things around me. This is one of the amazing things about photography in general, but especially about shooting film: the choice of camera can change how we view the world.
The oldest camera in the group is the Ansco Shur Shot Jr produced in 1948. It sold for $3.95, about $40 today. This camera produces a huge negative,
almost 3 inches by 4 inches. It was intended to be a simple camera for
everyday use, and it featured a fixed focus and one shutter speed. I chose this camera to shoot the composite of the alley wall in the 300 block of State Street because the lens had a definite sharpness in the center but the focus falls off at the top and bottom.
Here are the 7 different cameras I used to shoot these images:
- Canon 1D
- Fujifilm Klasse W
- Holga 120N
- Konica Hexar AF
- Nikon F3
- Ansco Shur Shot Jr
- Sprocket Rocket
