civilized ku # 5027 / main street triptych # 1 / main street quadtych # 1 ~ rural Main Streets

Main Street ~ Fort Covington, NY (embiggenable)

Main Street ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK (embiggenable)

This Sunday past, while I was making the pictures for the triptych Main Street ~ Fort Covington, a thought did come into my head that, to a greater or lesser degree, structures like these were, more common than not, to be found on small town rural America Main Streets.

I live in a rural America small town and, although the Main Street buildings in Au Sable Forks are not in a derelict state, only 6 of 17 storefronts have tenants (2 of the 7 storefronts pictured above). That written, we are lucky to have a bank, mid-sized grocery store and a seasonal (part of Spring, all of Summer and part of Autumn) movie theater (none of which I counted as a storefront).

Were I to pursue a rural America small town Main Street body of work, I can think of at least 8-10 small towns in New York State within 100 miles of my location which would most likely be candidates as subjects for such a project. If I were to traverse the entire state, there would be many more. And then there's Vermont where there is more rural poverty broken Main Streets than they would like to admit - doesn't fit the small town white church steeple surrounded by a sea of autumn foilage calender image they would like to project to the tourist crowd.

Tune in tomorrow for a few detail pictures of rural America small town broken Main Streets.

boarded up ~ Fort Covington, NY (embiggenable)

civilized ku # 5024-26 ~ this, that and other things

observed while urinating ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK (embiggenible)

observed while at my computer ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK (embiggenible)

my  car observed while at carwash ~ Malone, NY (embiggenible)

observed while in Vankleek Hill ~ Ontario, CA (embiggenible)

I am reading a rather quirky (in a very good way) book, The Infinites by the Irish author John Banville. It is my first read - and will not be my last - of one of his books inasmuch as his writing, this book as an example, has been described by various critics as:

... bordering on the divine ... intriguing, complex and ultimately elusive ... rife with mischief, as well as godly / authorual omnniscience, irony and wordplay ...

And, it is his wordplay that has me mesmerized because, as another critic stated, "If Banville is capable of writing an unmemorable sentence, he has succesfully concealed the evidence." I have dogeared so many pages with remarkable sentences which, although they relate to / describe the general human condition, are applicable to the medium of photography ...

... He bustles her out through the back door, which catches and gives a rattling shudder, as it always does: how steadfast in your world are the humblest things, and yet how shamefully little notice you take of them.

FYI, the preceeding rebuke is deliverd by the Greek god Hermes who is the book's narrator - as I wrote, quirky.

civilized ku # 5019-23 ~ ccertified organic goodness

keg  / Beau's All Natural Brewing Co. ~ VanKleek Hill, ONT. CA. (click to embiggen)

beer making / Beau's All Natural Brewing Co. ~ VanKleek Hill, ONT. CA. (click to embiggen)

beer stein competition / Beau's All Natural Brewing Co. ~ VanKleek Hill, ONT. CA. (click to embiggen)

had to have it

yum

One of Hugo's hockey games this weekend past was in Vankleek Hill, ONT. CA. and, as luck / fortuitous coincidence would have it, Vankleek Hill is home Beau's All Natural Brewing Co., the brewer of one of my (and the wife) favorite beers - Lug-Tread Lagered Ale. So, after Hugo's Saturday game near Ottawa, the wife and I went to Vankleek Hill to visit the brewery and stay overnight.

The brewery was hopping (get it? "hopping") - tour buses from Montreal and a constant flow of visitors. 10 of their beers were on tap for sampling or buying a pint. My favorite was a variation on their Irish-style Red Ale (aka, Fierce Patrick) which was aged in bourbon barrels (aka, Ravishing Patrick Rude). It has a bit of a kick with 10% ALC/VOL.

While we were there, we were treated to witnessing one of the many daily beer stein holding contests. The objective of the "game" is to hold a stein full of beer at arm's length - arm straight, elbow locked, no spilling or touching the counter allowed - with the intent of being the last participant to survive the holding effort. The winner - hint, the guy who looks like he drinks a lot of beer - of the pictured event (in this entry) survived for a tick or 2 over 11 minutes. The record for that day was over 17 minutes.

And then there was the hockey sweater (called a "jersey" in the US).

civilized ku # 5017-18 ~ divergent POVs

f8 and be there ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK (click to embiggen)

stuff in the kitchen ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK (click to embiggen)

Lest anyone think I might disappear down the rabbit hole of (I)eye witness picture making, I present here 2 of the straight source pictures used in the making of 2 of the previously presented (I)eye witness pictures.

In my picture making lifetime I will never stop seeing opportunities for making straight pictures, even should I want to do so. However, If I am to pursue the (I)eye witness series to whatever its logical conclusion might be, I must add a new component to my picture making - picturing a referent from different angles.

Other than very minute / subtle variations from the POV I saw which pricked my eye and sensibilities, I very rarely approach a referent from significantly differenet POVs - often called"working a scene". Consequently, when I see an (I)eye witness picturing possibility - I am still working to identify such referents - I must adopt a multi-POV manner of picturing.

That written, adopting a multi-POV manner of picturing will not be a Herculean task. However, in doing so with the relatively few (I)eye witness pictures I have made, I must write that those POVs, which different from the POV I saw which caused my to make the picture, look all wrong to my eye and sensibilities. That sensation causes me to realize just how selective my seeing / picturing vision is.

EYE WITNESS # 5-7 ~ the truth and the memory

I saw sunlight striking a flower and vase

I saw a halloween napkin

I saw a hotel garden

As I mentioned in yesterday's entry part of the concept, re: (I)eye witness, was to address the role of photography in creating visual documents which afix a precise truth as an adjunct to frail human memories. Which begs the question, should the genesis of the "memory" as pictured be part of the visual?

Hence today's pictures which include - all of a piece - a section of one of the original pictures used to make the (I)eye witness picture. iMo (at least as it stands here and now), is that there needs to be a visual reference to the camera's capability of recording the "truth.