Today I brought home 37 beautiful sets of matted photographs (111 photographs: 1937-1978-2012).This is the first phase of the rephotographic project. The next step is to print the remaining 180 streetcorner views. I will need to purchase scans from History Colorado for the 1937 images and then digitize the 1978 images. Most of the 2009-2012 images are scanned as JPG's. Everything will need to be filed and preserved now and going forward.
This will constitute an amazing look at how Denver has changed over 76 years.
I will initiate a Kickstarter project shortly.
Showing posts with label Lodo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lodo. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Published a photo book!
This past week I published a book! The one I planned to do through blurb.com: "Love Letter to the Railroad Yards." The 30 or so photographs featured in the book came from my 1976-77 images of the yards in Denver, done with B&W infrared film (no longer made by Kodak). As I noted before, I was very passionate about trains in those days and particularly the yards in Denver...the yards which don't exist anymore, at least behind Union Station. This is out of the scope of our rephotographic project, of course, but led to the project, which I undertook in 1978-79. I used to pass through LoDo on my way to the yards...with some trepidation, I might add. Streets largely deserted...some weird people hanging around...I usually hurried on to my subject of the time. Union Station was also deserted in those days and I often sat in there writing or just resting from a couple of hours photographing. It was a great time. I went out everyday and shot at least a roll of film; developed it in the evening and printed contact sheets (anyone remember those?!); and on Saturdays, would spend the whole day in the darkroom at Metro printing the best images. Then to class the next week with the finished product(s)...
I'm really proud of this work. Blurb.com did a great job. Used a premium paper--lustre--and was very very careful to prepare the photos in Picasa before uploading them to the Booksmart template. Yes, Picasa. I don't have Photoshop--at this point. And I used scanned prints instead of negatives...my scanner has trouble with negs. Ah--post-production is beyond me. I can take great pictures...but I haven't made the darkroom to digital leap yet. I will soon enough.
It's Halloween 2012...we had 35 trick or treaters tonight...the most ever. I'm drinking hot carob milk and trying not to think about the upcoming election and what will happen if...
I'm really proud of this work. Blurb.com did a great job. Used a premium paper--lustre--and was very very careful to prepare the photos in Picasa before uploading them to the Booksmart template. Yes, Picasa. I don't have Photoshop--at this point. And I used scanned prints instead of negatives...my scanner has trouble with negs. Ah--post-production is beyond me. I can take great pictures...but I haven't made the darkroom to digital leap yet. I will soon enough.
It's Halloween 2012...we had 35 trick or treaters tonight...the most ever. I'm drinking hot carob milk and trying not to think about the upcoming election and what will happen if...
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Photographed yesterday and today
It's beastly hot in Denver; high 90's. On June 16th (2010) I was able to make 6 exposures on 14th and 15th streets, 10-10:15 am. By then the temp was well into the 90's. I stopped then to go on to my oral history consulting.
Today (71/17) I was on the bus in Boulder at 7:15. Had some kind of drug reaction to an allergy medication so by the time I got to Denver, I felt woozy and sick. After a bagel at Einstein's, I went on to photograph at 8:30 am. Got 30 exposures made on 19th street, Curtis, Arapahoe, Lawrence and Larimer. Felt upset about a nice-looking federal style building that no longer exists (it was there in 1978). Don't have the old image, unfortunately. By 9:45 I was totally wilting. It must have been way over 90 by then. Sun very strong.
Not many people on the street, but I did try to get some in the photos and de-emphasize cars. People looked, one lady said hello. I'm always a little shy and self-conscious photographing on the street. I could never have done it in the 60's.
Reading a wonderful book after Googling "rephotographic projects." This is by Douglas Levere, called "New York Changing." He re-did Berenice Abbott's work from the 30's ("Changing New York") and was able to even use one of her cameras. It's a beautiful book, a Cadillac compared to my Corolla. Starting to think the real value of my project is reference rather than beauty, although there are some very interesting views. Partly: Norred's images were not very good in many cases. Maybe he was rushing at that point to get everything covered. And what happened to the rest of the downtown images? Were they ever done? The CHS records are flimsy in that regard. Think he was laid off by WPA before the project finished.
Another problem: I only have xeroxes for the older ('37) photos, except for the 40 or so I prepared in the early 80's fo9r exhibition. The CHS photographer in those years used a stabilizing machine, brought over from his original lab, to make photographs from the original negs and of course, by the mid-80's these images were hardly stable. I had to throw them out because they were polluting my files and couldn't been seen anymore or even xeroxed. So I only have the 1978 views. More on that later.
Sam and I talked last night about the culture of Lodo. He mentioned that the sports bars down on Larimer, Market and Blake attract different clientele. For example, the hockey bars are rougher than the Broncos bars and the baseball bars are more refined than either of those. Also, on Saturday nights, men with taco pushcarts come to Lodo to sell their food and do a brisk business. I believe I've seen some of them during the day up around 17th and 18th streets. It would be fun to document that.
The red bicycles are also interesting. Saw a couple riding them today down Arapahoe.
Will wrap this up and water tomatoes and make shakshouka.
Today (71/17) I was on the bus in Boulder at 7:15. Had some kind of drug reaction to an allergy medication so by the time I got to Denver, I felt woozy and sick. After a bagel at Einstein's, I went on to photograph at 8:30 am. Got 30 exposures made on 19th street, Curtis, Arapahoe, Lawrence and Larimer. Felt upset about a nice-looking federal style building that no longer exists (it was there in 1978). Don't have the old image, unfortunately. By 9:45 I was totally wilting. It must have been way over 90 by then. Sun very strong.
Not many people on the street, but I did try to get some in the photos and de-emphasize cars. People looked, one lady said hello. I'm always a little shy and self-conscious photographing on the street. I could never have done it in the 60's.
Reading a wonderful book after Googling "rephotographic projects." This is by Douglas Levere, called "New York Changing." He re-did Berenice Abbott's work from the 30's ("Changing New York") and was able to even use one of her cameras. It's a beautiful book, a Cadillac compared to my Corolla. Starting to think the real value of my project is reference rather than beauty, although there are some very interesting views. Partly: Norred's images were not very good in many cases. Maybe he was rushing at that point to get everything covered. And what happened to the rest of the downtown images? Were they ever done? The CHS records are flimsy in that regard. Think he was laid off by WPA before the project finished.
Another problem: I only have xeroxes for the older ('37) photos, except for the 40 or so I prepared in the early 80's fo9r exhibition. The CHS photographer in those years used a stabilizing machine, brought over from his original lab, to make photographs from the original negs and of course, by the mid-80's these images were hardly stable. I had to throw them out because they were polluting my files and couldn't been seen anymore or even xeroxed. So I only have the 1978 views. More on that later.
Sam and I talked last night about the culture of Lodo. He mentioned that the sports bars down on Larimer, Market and Blake attract different clientele. For example, the hockey bars are rougher than the Broncos bars and the baseball bars are more refined than either of those. Also, on Saturday nights, men with taco pushcarts come to Lodo to sell their food and do a brisk business. I believe I've seen some of them during the day up around 17th and 18th streets. It would be fun to document that.
The red bicycles are also interesting. Saw a couple riding them today down Arapahoe.
Will wrap this up and water tomatoes and make shakshouka.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Stepping back from an earlier observation...
With the photographs of Wazee Street now developed and digitized, I am seeing something different in Lodo, particularly in Sam's images. His are playful, with people at the edges of frames, moving. People appear in 1937, but rarely in 1978. I'm thinking of his images of the Wazee Lounge. Mine, with the Retina I bought 40 years ago (!)--the camera that took the 1978 pictures--are static but fairly exact. His encompass the Lounge, part of 15th St., the pavement of the street itself, the Acme Building off in the distance (hello, Guy Noir), an African-American teenager moving quickly out of the left of the frame, and finally some cars moving quickly and a little randomly through the intersection. Bravo, Sam, for the vibrancy!
I always wait for people to get the heck out of the frame, but Sam includes them--like the elderly white couple moving into the intersection at 16th and Wazee.
OK, there are a lot of cars down there now, a lot of people walking around, some looking pretty rich. Lots of trees. To beat a dead horse, though, this is not the Denver I knew. Yet why doom a downtown to be a skid row neighborhood? Sometimes I think I liked it not just because of the Brooklyn memories, but because it was quiet, filled with isolated people if at all, and the same with the railroad yards. I'm pretty focused on the built environment and want that to stand out, but, like Sam, maybe now it's OK to let some people into my own pictures...let's see.
I always wait for people to get the heck out of the frame, but Sam includes them--like the elderly white couple moving into the intersection at 16th and Wazee.
OK, there are a lot of cars down there now, a lot of people walking around, some looking pretty rich. Lots of trees. To beat a dead horse, though, this is not the Denver I knew. Yet why doom a downtown to be a skid row neighborhood? Sometimes I think I liked it not just because of the Brooklyn memories, but because it was quiet, filled with isolated people if at all, and the same with the railroad yards. I'm pretty focused on the built environment and want that to stand out, but, like Sam, maybe now it's OK to let some people into my own pictures...let's see.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Rephotographing Denver
I have just embarked on a project to rephotograph downtown Denver, block by block, an area bounded by Arapahoe Street, Wynkoop Street, 19th Street to Cherry Creek. Thirty years ago, I documented these same street corners as a volunteer for the Colorado Historical Society. That project in turn was based on work done by a WPA photographer named Cyril Norred, who worked for the Society in 1937.
This time, I'm proud to say, that my son, Sam Fairchild, is my colleague on this project. He will do the photography on the streets and has already entered all my data linking the original accession numbers of the images with my 1978-79 images. Bravo!
The first time we ventured out, some weeks ago, we tried to find locations on Arapahoe St. Needless to say nothing was familiar from 1978 (let alone 1937). A hailstorm quickly overtook us so we spent the rest of the afternoon at Zaidy's downtown restaurant. Eating hummus was fun, but not the intended mission of the day...hopefully the afternoon storms of Denver will be over soon.
Lower Downtown (LoDo) was a skid row when I photographed in the 70's, one of many skid rows in Denver (South Broadway was another one.) The closer I got to Union Station, the seedier the streets and of course, the closer I got to Arapahoe, the more parking lots I encountered.
Why did I do this project in the first place? Stay tuned...
This time, I'm proud to say, that my son, Sam Fairchild, is my colleague on this project. He will do the photography on the streets and has already entered all my data linking the original accession numbers of the images with my 1978-79 images. Bravo!
The first time we ventured out, some weeks ago, we tried to find locations on Arapahoe St. Needless to say nothing was familiar from 1978 (let alone 1937). A hailstorm quickly overtook us so we spent the rest of the afternoon at Zaidy's downtown restaurant. Eating hummus was fun, but not the intended mission of the day...hopefully the afternoon storms of Denver will be over soon.
Lower Downtown (LoDo) was a skid row when I photographed in the 70's, one of many skid rows in Denver (South Broadway was another one.) The closer I got to Union Station, the seedier the streets and of course, the closer I got to Arapahoe, the more parking lots I encountered.
Why did I do this project in the first place? Stay tuned...
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