Nearly a year...

Wow... It has been nearly one year since I have made a post on this blog. There have been so many great projects over the last year, lots of work. It is an exciting time in Holyoke and I am working hard to promote the visual image of the city. I strive to capture the most appealing, most flattering, and most honest views of Holyoke. There is a lot to see, a lot being shown, and a lot of changes taking place and on the horizon. The city of Holyoke is as beautiful as it ever is, but the landscape is changing. Holyoke is an ever evolving city.

Here is an image of Holyoke, the most recent city scape that I have made, which is from last night.

By proclamation of the Mayor and with the help of Treasurer Jon Lumbra, April is Autism Awareness Month in Holyoke. City Hall will glow blue for the second year in the row. 

The moon rose slowly over the city river a few nights ago. 

The colors of winter. This was from about two weeks back. 

I am proud to say that I will be dedicating a great deal of time to promote this site and the work that I have been doing. I urge all of you to get out there and photograph the city. In the last few weeks I have met quite a few photographers whos cameras have been focused on the city. 

I leave you with the following images. There will be A LOT more to come. 

Elements removed from the roof of a building. 

Wednesday Evening Walk Through

Wednesday night was beautiful out. After doing a little bit of work in the studio, I took a stroll with my business partner through downtown capturing the setting light. We happened upon the site of the former Mastex building. During some of the demolition a portion of the building came down onto the sidewalk that was on the same side of the street as the building. As the heat broke, so did a section of the building, causing an issue that needed to be cleaned up. In a conversation with a police officer, he gave us a quick synopsis of what happened. The unit was stationed outside of the site to ensure no one would enter the site. As I stood next to the bright, almost glowing caution tape, I could hear the uneasy sounds of the building. It was a sad moan. The remaining fragments of the building stood sad, creaking, and moaning in discontent from having partially collapsed onto the sidewalk. The aroma of mill and post industrial manufacturing filled the immediate area. For me, that stench is familiar, as an explorer of a city rebuilding itself after its economical and industrial fallout, I have stood in many buildings that have similar sights, sounds, and displeasing smells. In a very short time, the landscape will, again, be permanently altered, as the new construction will soon rise in its place. 

The cool air that filled the city created some wonderful colors that helped illuminate the soft clouds. The light passing through the clouds was as much a subject matter as the elements of the city that were half lit by the setting sun. With the sun coming to a quick setting, our time seeing the city through the lens was also coming to an end. Dinner plans were in the works and we had standing reservations to get to. It was another beautiful evening in the city that turned to a great night.

 

Photographs and a story

On Sunday I met up with friend and fellow shooter Bob G. You might remember the article I wrote a few weeks back about Bob’s photographs from Parson Paper. While giving Bob a few quick lessons and some tips about photography we stumbled into local business owner. He was gracious enough to give us an underbelly tour of very essence of what comprised Holyoke’s once well know mode of production. We spent the better part of two hours talking, walking, and making photographs of some of the most private parts of Holyoke’s rich history. We were pretty blessed to get into the locations we were in. I learned quite a bit more about the vast history and the importance Holyoke used to serve. Holyoke is growing again, in more ways than one. And, in more ways than completely visible to the average person. While my photographs are completely subjective and more artistic in nature, you can still get a sense of what we were seeing.

One thing we did learn of, there is a huge market for a certain type of brick. A common brick that was used and stuffed on the inside of the walls of a lot of the buildings in Holyoke. The term for these bricks are called, clinkers. They are miss shaped, deformed, warped, out of character bricks that still retain their strength and can very much be used in constructing buildings. The Halfway House, a local bar, in South Hadley is made out of this type of brick. Very interesting to know. It kind of makes me want to buy enough of these bricks to build an un-aesthetically pleasing house.

Take notice how the brick has separated from the rest of the wall.

These pipes make for a great composition. The quality of light is what drew me towards them. Plus the contrast with the dark background.

This is very interesting. These are 120 Film negatives hanging in an apt window.

 

These two photographs of the chair are my favorite. The way they are just posing in the room and how the light is coming in from one broken window really pulled this composition together.

These two photographs area visual metaphore and poem all in one composition. The stairs leading towards and empty exit.

FIN