Door #72

Doors as a subject matter doesn’t sound like much of an interesting subject matter but for me the old building doors around town fascinate me. Old as in the buildings of the 20’s and 30’s because the designer of the building incorporated the door to the design, unlike today. Today’s buildings seem to treat the door as an afterthought or something to hide. Today’s doors are just a pane of glass with a handle and words painted on it, or it is glass framed in a metal sleeve. A cold barrier that is relative unimpressive and uninviting.  

Looking at the buildings of the era you can see that the door is something that was thoughtfully designed to accent the building. A door way is a place that greets visitors, to prepare them for the wonders of the design of the inside and the object that announces you to the outside. A door is functional keeping the weather out but a door should incorporate the design of the whole building. A door is more that its name implies.

The Matyk Building Door is set in, giving you the feel of being in the space without being truly in. The welcoming being closer to the inside, the shelter of the space from the weather gives the space warmth.  This accented by the plants, which are dead, and the glow of the gas light above and the wood. The wood that gives life and character of the door. Wood is warm, life and a welcoming feeling to the space to the house. I believe no matter what the rest of the building is made from, a wooden door will always warm you before you go into the house and that is how it should be.

The exit door from the TCR Building has that quality as well. The doors have that feeling of the warmth of the inside sheltering us announcing us to the world. What this space says to me, “Thanks for coming, we have enjoyed you but now the story is over and it’s time for a new story somewhere else.” That sounds funny but to me that is what a good exit door should be.

Doors, there is a lot of them around town that I will be photographing because I believe in some way they are a part of our town visually and metaphorically.    

The Matyk Building Door. The plants are long past dead but still gives life to the space. 

The TCR Exit Doors. This space is a warm thoughtful exit out to the world that says to "thanks and comeback again." 

Lamp #1

Despite the gloomy skies, I made my way downtown and began my photographic journey creating images of Cedar Rapids.  Because the grey flatness of the sky I looked for subjects that did not depend on it to be enhanced. I headed to the Iowa Bank Building to see if I could create an image using the street lamps and building. As I passed this building I have often felt the arches are something you see in a bigger metropolitan city in the financial district. The street lamps seem to compliment that feeling when you see them next to or visually placed on the building. That is what I am after.

The one side, 3rd Street sidewalk, has construction going making it impossible to create an image without a lot of clutter. So, I opted for the 2nd avenue sidewalk and created this image. I had shot many angles but felt that I created close to what I wanted to create on the other sidewalk.

What draws me to this building and why I created this image is the fact it looks like a building for a bigger town. It was built in the 20’s when the money was flowing and big and important was the design of the financial institutions. There are a few buildings in town that were built at the same time but do not have the arches and windows this does. The arches give it that step up. I have often wanted to photograph just the arches but at this point I can’t get at the same level as they are to create the image.

The other part of this building I find fascinating is the columns that are currently being covered up by the construction work. They too have that big city look to them and I have often wanted to photograph them as people walk by them. And being in a small town the foot traffic is not that heavy. I think I would have a harder time finding to one or three people walking by them at the right time than having too many people in the shot.

I plan to make more images of this building and the street lamps through this project. I believe I have a taste of what I am looking for but not it entirely. Once the construction clears away I will create images of both the street lamps and arches along with the columns.   

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Landscape #3

Tuesday was one of those days where the light and weather was not what I was looking for to make images of downtown so I opted instead to head out to the country side to create photographs. Being spring the weather tends to be turbulent for most the days. In the latter half of spring into early summer the number of storms that produce tornados grow substantially. As Iowans, we tend to live by the weather. The farmer’s success is tied to the favor of the weather so it is common place that we keep one eye on the sky while going about our daily lives. And in the spring when the weather turns bad and storms roll across our plains we don’t always head for shelter. Instead sit out on our front porch and watch the violence of the wind, rain wrapped in thunder and lighting and the few tornados carve paths of destruction in our fields.  Only when the danger is truly baring down upon us do we seek shelter only to step out and face the destruction head on.

As bad as the clouds look it was one of those spring days where it could not make up its mind wither to rain and be nasty or just look that way. Many of times on days like these I couldn’t help be drawn to stand out in a field and watch the clouds race by. It’s the drama of the sky and the energy that swirls and builds in the atmosphere. It’s watching the clouds move one way or another and as they did the light change giving them and the landscape character rather than flat grey like winter.  

For me Spring is change, the energy that is building to push the life from the ground. I could feel it standing there as the clouds passed overhead creating a friction between land and sky, anticipating a spark, a bolt of lightning discharging the color of the planet breaking the monochromatic spell of winter. Just stand there and you will feel it.