Pictorial History Frame by Frame

I started my photographic journey in the early 1970s. My camera was a Minolta SLR with no electronics other than the flash meter. Focusing was accomplished via the split mirror circle at the center of the viewfinder. One had to know the facts of optics in order to get the right results. There was a lot of playing around with the f/stop, focus, ISO films, etc. Most of the photos were shot on Panchromatic B&W negatives. As a young man my budget was quite limited and the cost of travel dominated the day.

Film processing and photo-finishing was expensive for the person I was in those days. Generally, I shot the frames and sent the film off to be developed without being printed. Later I had a wage paying job and while still living with my father put together a darkroom in a closet. I invested in an enlarger and a print dryer. More than once I needed to escape the fumes of that small enclosed space.

I wanted to do color photography too but it was out of my budget range. That is when I began the Kodachrome transparency phase. Slides were convenient and eminently portable. Ciba-Geigy marketed a unique kit for printing the color positives to color paper. Then I could shoot a roll of slides and print the few which were worthy of the cost of printing.

Back when digital cameras first appeared, I swore I would never "go digital". That was when the sensor would shoot only a 1 megapixel frame. Soon the resolution of the electronics increased until it rivaled film negatives.

I say all the foregoing as prologue to the idea which occurred to me all those years ago. There were places I would go or pass by at irregular but repeated intervals. These locations became the subject of my multi-decade studies of the aging of the subjects. Some of my examples are only a then and now comparison bracketed by 1975 and 2020, or similar intervals. Other examples are: then, later on, later on more, later on again, later still and now. These series are a bittersweet look at places and times which are now gone or nearly gone.

I used to pass the Water Street Inn on my way to State College, PA where I studied Hydrology. I love the sight of running water. The Inn was already in a state of decay and collapse when I first encountered her. But then my camera captured the nuances of the demise, attempted resurrection and ultimate destruction of that once bustling establishment.

Another place located along US 40 west of Frostburg, Maryland "collapsed in slow motion" in front of my camera over a 30-year interval until its final day and the debris was hauled away. I am saddened both by the ultimate and fully expected collapse and that there is little reason to stop on my journeys to get the next frame. Although unlikely, a new subject may one day spring up on that land and I hope to be alive to photograph it.

My most widely varied study is of the Borough of Braddock, Pennsylvania. Braddock is the location of the Edgar Thompson Steelworks, the site of a bloody strike-riot put down by Pinkerton Agent. The plane and town remain only as a remnant of their former glory. My earliest photographs date from circa 1975 and continue through the present. 

The early photo set were shot from one of the high floors of the now gone Braddock Hospital. The later pictures depict the continual and intermittent loss of one building after another as the town is being allowed to die. Each year I return to see the changes i fins more grassy lots where buildings used to be. Once on a July 4th, I shot a building constructed in 1909, next I have a photo of a bulldozed pushing bricks and broken timbers. Lastly the location is a grassy rectangle waiting for its next life.

 

  

 

 

These three photos are from my OpenSea.io collection titled simply "Braddock" . They are Non-Fungible Token images available for purchase along with the other 40 images in the collection.

My travels have taken me around the 48 lower states and for visits to some of the same cities and regions multiple times. The collection I have posted at OpenSea is my way of sharing that experience with everyone who will follow along in my travels.

Robert Carlson's OpenSea NFT Collections

Opensea NFT Collections by Robert Carlson

These OpenSea collections are the result of my 50 years of travels with my camera. mostly the travel has been in the ower 48 states, but I did travel internationally a few times and got some really good local photos in those destinations.

During my travels I have hit all 48 of the lower 48 states and still have the pictures I took at those times. Due to an unfortunate mishap, my earliest negatives were lost. From that period of time I have only prints and a few Kodachrome slides. Since one of my passions is the time lapse of sequential visits to the same subject, there are surviving images of various places.

Gathered here are the selected few of the photos I think you will enjoy seeing. Click on the image to see details of that picture. Click on the icon at the top right of the image to visit the OpenSea collection. If you have a compatible crypto wallet you can show me you like the item.

Across the nation there are millions of homes of all descriptions. The front of those dwellings may be plain, contain a stoop by the door, have a covered or uncovered porch or in days mostly gone by, a veranda wrapping around 2 or 3 sides of the house. Some Front Porches are well maintained and decorative while others are places where junk accumulates. This project collects the many instances of front porches and the numerous uses.

Braddock, PA, USA is "The Town That is Being Allowed to Die". Building disappear on a continuing basis as the population declines and everything ages. Attempt to revive and save the Borough have been valiantly fought but time is not on their side.

I traveled a lot during my salary days and always had my camera and logbook packed. The camera captured the images and the logbook retained the Latitude and Longitude so I could recall precisely where the picture was taken. Now today the camera can geocode the digital images automatically. These photographs represent a life of travel.

Disappearing Railroad Blues. Freight lines still crisscross the nation, but passenger service is but a faint memory of what once was THE way to travel in America. Many of these images evoke the memories of those days.

B&W is one way to look at the world. Sepia is another way entirely. The tone is not merely a "color" it is an emotion itself.

Braddock, PA, USA is "The Town That is Being Allowed to Die". Buildings disappear on a continuing basis as the population declines and everything ages. Attempt to revive and save the Borough have been valiantly fought but time is not on their side.

Impressive architecture of the Museum on the Mall in Washington, DC. 1/1 photos. Photos by Robert Carlson

This series of photos follows the slow motion collapse of one building over a period of more than 30 years. The building was on US 40 in Frostburg, MD, USA. 1/1. All photos by Robert Carlson.

Images by Robert Carlson of Reykjavik, Keflavik and surrounding regions of the island. All images 1/1

Utility covers, usually round, are strewn around the urban streetscape. They can be decorative or plain. They can highly worn from foot and vehicle traffic. Most are self-identifies as to purpose but some house a mystery.

Street Coins, those ubiquitous metal disks on the ground in every city of the world. Photos by Robert Carlson