Friday, May 18, 2007

Shoot Now or Cry Later

Joe Reifer has interesting blog titled Farewall Streetcars: Shoot Now or Cry Later.

(Photo by Joe Reifer)

Last year Joe photographed a collection of street cars at night near Lake Tahoe, CA. He recently learned from Telstar Logistics that many of these cars have been sold and moved to St Louis, Missouri.

About ten years ago I came across David Plowden's books in the library. He talks at length about photographing old buildings, factories, towns and machinery as fast as possible to create a record for future generations. My favorite theme from Plowden's writing was how he felt he was always "...staying one step ahead of the wrecking ball."

Like many photographers, I keep a list of things I plan to shoot someday. The list was originally prioritized along the lines of what would be the most photogenic. More recently, I've reprioritized it along the lines of what is most likely to be gone soon. In the few years that I've been photographing old sites, I can already name a dozen sites that have been torn down (most have been replaced by strip malls or high-density housing), one that is no longer accessible, one that is in the process of being torn down, and one that is at great risk of getting burned to the ground any day by some of the bozos who regularly visit it.

1 Comments:

Blogger Keith Alan K said...

I learned this lesson the hard way, yet I still manage to miss some before it's too late. Here's an old blog post about one of my successes--the building was gone within a month. http://kaktex.blogspot.com/2006/02/theres-no-place-like-home.html

3:13 PM  

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