Blink 2008/2012

Outdoor Imperative 2012

Derelict City Bus Composite 2008/2012

As I've said, it was four years ago on the day after a particularly hectic Halloween and I'm on the long trek home from a party. After passing the train here, I came upon what must've been the city transit scrapyard or something. I'm not sure and don't remember clearly, but these pictures are proof I took a break from my walk inside an abandoned city bus. Have you ever been in the driver's seat of an abandoned bus? Well, I have and I'll further say that putting this scene back together after so many insane years is a unique experience for sure.

Careening Wall 2008/2012

Using the wall as a point of reference, this sequence might give you an idea of what it's like to walk down the street drunk.

Or it might not.

Everyday Entropy 2009

Desk 2009

Once, during that short time I was staying with Fred Friction and his wife Kathy, I walked from the house on Miami over to Mangia on S. Grand with a camera borrowed from a friend of Tony V's. Now, I don't remember it exactly, but I must've come upon this scene somewhere along Morgan Ford in the lot where the gas station used to stand.

Population One 2000

When my friends in Cobalt Blue were recording their first (and only) record, I was hoping I might be able to design the cover. I had it in mind, at one point, to use this photograph I shot from the car on a trip from St. Louis to Denver and call the album, "Population One," which was one of their songs. Turned out Sean, the guitar player, had other plans and this image finally turned up in the Six Comforts CD package with type in large blue letters that read, "We are all living on borrowed space."

Thirteen at Random 1988/1993/1997/1999/2000/2001

My Six Comforts folder contains a pretty wild variety of images I meant to use in a series but never did. Here are 13 of those without category and from everywhere from East Berlin to Hollywood to my kitchen counter.

Stucco Shields 2011

Here are two outlines I found on the front of one of those empty buildings on Central this morning. My guess is the building used to be a Salvation Army or something but the only evidence of that are these two empty shields which seem to me to be ghosts of the old SA logo.

Empty Buildings (I Think) 2011

Crank It 1999

This mechanical surface fragment was shot with all the pictures of the metal tanks in St. Charles. This wheel controls something. Not sure what.

Tanks 1999

I don't remember too much about these except to say that I saw something I thought was interesting off the side of the highway in St. Charles, MO and I pulled over and shot some pictures of it.

Fragments from the Back of a Store 2006

Here's me on a bike ride up Kingshiway in St. Louis and stopping at a vacant store, looking for good photographs with the old OM-1, and going around back and shooting anything on the back of the building that wasn't just white-painted cinderblock.

Scenes from Death Valley 1983

Ask me and I'll tell you, "My favorite place on this stupid planet is Death Valley. I love how, on the salt flats, it's so close to absolutely nothing. The earth and the sky are the same white and there's almost no horizon line. It's actually kinda scary cause you feel like you can't trust anyplace that's so completely still. Nowhere can you feel more alone. It's where I wanna die."

I shot a whole role out there when I was 18 (my first of two visits), so there are many more pictures somewhere and they will appear in time. For now, here are these from a rest area near Furnace Creek, I think, and a view from the car.
6/9/12 - Just noticed this old post.

FIRE 2006

East Side at Night 2001

I think what a lot of us did was, when the bars closed, we went across the river to E. St. Louis in Illinois where clubs stayed open until, like, five in the morning (shocking all the drunk driving that went on and probably still does). On one such foray I was drunk and confused and walked out of a club alone and was not allowed back in. So, stranded by myself in the parking lot, I started taking pictures of whatever was there. Most all of them were useless, but this one has a pretty nice mood to it.

Here are some of the people I was with that night: Rosa, Mary, Lance and someone else I can't make out.

Farmington No.2 (Stones) 2004

It was explained to me by Carl Edgar, the owner of this property, that, once upon a time, this land was employed as a hematite mine, hence the stone blocks that littered the area. "But," He added, "it wasn't just common, iron ore they were after." and he picked up a flat piece of rock off the ground. "This mineral was used as a lubricant." Sure enough, the hematite felt slippery between my fingers, like oily metal. Freaky.

Construction No.1 (Perforated Walls and Struts) 2000

You're driving along. You notice something interesting. You know it won't be there forever so you pull over and grab it with the camera. This is an example of that. I saw fresh walls go up on Oakland where the Checker Dome used to sit and down the road from my school, so I stopped and got what I could of this nascent structure before they ran me off.