RE: [Leica] Almost photography in Cleveland (long, but not by my standards ;)

["B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>]

Hey, Martin, if you're talking cities and city scapes, don't forget W.
Eugene Smith's Pittsburgh megaproject.....some really stunning stuff...of
people and places....



> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Martin
> Howard
> Sent: Monday, September 18, 2000 2:08 PM
> To: Leica Users Group
> Subject: [Leica] Almost photography in Cleveland (long, but not by my
> standards ;)
>
>
>
> I have a thing for cityscapes.  Particularly in black and white.  And
> especially if they are taken on older lenses.  I think it stems from a
> combination of fascination with architecture and design, and with the
> photographic tradition which gave rise to Feininger's "Chicago", Brassai's
> pictures of Paris, and similar works.  In any case, for whatever reason, I
> have a thing for cityscapes.
>
> Now, Columbus in Ohio isn't the world's most photogenic city.  It was a
> comparatively small, chiefly agricultural centre (from what I've been able
> to glean of its history) until only a few decades ago, at which point it
> started to exploded in size.  If you like modern red brick
> buildings thrown
> together in haste without much thought to style or design,
> Columbus is your
> kind of city.  Personally, I'm much more interested by old industrial
> buildings.  While function was typically the main (only?) design
> consideration, they can be approached from an aesthetic point of view.
> Combine that eye with low, raking sunlight early in the morning or late in
> the afternoon, and there is the potential for great photographs.
>
> Unlike Columbus, Cleveland does have its fair share of interesting
> industrial buildings.  It's about two hours drive north of Columbus, which
> by American standards, is only a little less than most people would expect
> to drive for breakfast and these days, with Eric the Red, I just
> look for an
> excuse to exercise the ignition key.  Besides, I detest having to plan for
> things, much rather doing them on the spur of the moment.  Said
> and done, I
> decide that I'm going to go to Cleveland and shoot some rolls of film.
>
> I take more pictures the less stuff I carry, yet I manage to cram a Leica
> M2, with 25mm, 35mm, and 50mm lenses into a bag, a Moskva-5 6x9cm
> folder, an
> Agfa Clack 6x9cm fixed focus point-and-shoot, along with about 15 rolls of
> film, a table-top tripod, and a light meter into a small satchel, which
> practically guarantees that not a single frame of film will be exposed.
> Initially, I was going to go up on the Saturday, but stuff
> happened as stuff
> does, and so I decided to set off early on Sunday morning instead.
>
> Early Sunday morning was probably glorious.  I say probably,
> because by the
> time I woke at 11 am, early Sunday morning had passed and gone.  Must be a
> faulty alarm clock, or something.  Anyway, I figured I'd have the
> afternoon
> sun, shooting old buildings across the Cuyahoga River.  Bag into the car,
> stop for a coffee, hit I-71 northbound.
>
> Or rather, try to.  On the map, roads around Columbus look like something
> pretty well-organized, enabling you to quickly get to where you're going
> from where you are, but in reality what on the map is a six-lane 65 mph
> speedy route is a two-lane, crowded 35 mph crawl through
> construction zones
> lined with orange cones and concrete dividers.  The whole
> experience is like
> a game of Tron.  With orange cones on either side of every lane, from a
> distance it just looks like a complete mess of orange.  In addition to
> which, of course, you're doing a leasurly 35 mph right up until 3/4 mile
> before your turn-off, at which point traffic suddenly starts doing 70 mph
> and you have to figure out which gap in the cones is your
> turn-off and which
> is just the result of some inebriated OSU undergrad trying to see how many
> he can knock down driving home from a frat party.
>
> Eventually, I make it out of Columbus and towards Cleveland.  In the late
> 70s, the car manufacturer's were apparently concerned that if you made the
> seat back to seat angle adjustable on the driver's side, then there was a
> risk of the whole assembly failing and flopping the seat back down into a
> horizontal position while you drive.  So, as a result, 45 minutes into the
> drive to Cleveland, I feel my lower back and right leg go completely numb
> because the angle is almost 90 degrees.  With no cruise control, I have to
> keep my foot on the accelerator and so the whole thing becomes an exercise
> in acrobatics after about an hour.
>
> I get to Cleveland at about 3 pm.  The first things that strikes
> me is that
> there is a blimp hovering over the city, which reminds me of the
> ones I used
> to see over the Fenway in Boston on game nights.  The second thing that
> strikes me is that there is a police officer and a Cleveland Browns
> merchandize booth on every street corner and I then recall the title of
> Oliver Stone's latest film: "Any Given Sunday".  Sure enough, it's a home
> game.  Sure enough, there isn't a single parking space in town available,
> and even if there were, they'd all be up from $6 a day to $15 for the
> afternoon.  So I cruise around Public Square for a while, considering my
> options, locate the nearest parking lot for future reference and
> then point
> Eric's missing hood ornament towards I-71 south.
>
> As I suspected: with that much gear, not a single frame of film
> exposed.  Oh
> well, there's always next weekend...
>
>
> M.
>
> --
> Martin Howard                     | iCon          iDole       iRate
> Visiting Scholar, CSEL, OSU       | iDeal         iDull       iMage
> email: howard.390@osu.edu         | iSue          iOn         iGnorance
> www: http://mvhoward.i.am/        +---------------------------------------
>
>
>