Some new photos from Fort Wayne

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

So Chris,are these last few photos shot with the PanF ? It's recently become
my go to 120 film. Hope you like it as I do.
Peter

Peter,

The last two black and whites I posted, the house with the happy face and the house with the flag over the front porch, were done on Tri-X developed in D-76 1+1.

The two right before the color photo of grandpa's cabinet, the chair on the porch and the barn with "Home of the Brave" painted on it, were Pan-F developed in PMK.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I'm always glad to see the legend ''Some new photos from Fort Wayne'' displayed on the active threads list, Chris, and I click on to your latest artwork with eager anticipation.
You never disappoint !
Best regards,
Dave B.

Thanks, Dave. I have several more on the way. I scanned 5 negs yesterday, posted two of them today, decided I didn't like one of the others after seeing it on screen, and still have two more to post after I finish editing them!

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Here's another new photograph from Monday evening in Fort Wayne.

Every year in the weeks leading up to the July 4th holiday, a huge number of fireworks stores open in vacant storefronts all over Fort Wayne. Freebie's Fireworks is one of the biggest 'chains' of these impromptu fireworks vendors in the city.

This photograph was made in the parking lot of one of them on Bluffton Road in the Waynedale area of Fort Wayne, Indiana. The house in the background is also vacant, but the fireworks store is in a former auto repair shop next door.

 

[mfunnell]

This old house in southwest Allen County at the corner of Airport Expressway and Coverdale Road, near Fort Wayne International Airport, has been abandoned for many years. I made this photograph around 2002. In 2008, I went back to the house and photographed the inside. In 2011, it was demolished to make way for a factory and warehouse.

I always enjoy looking at your work, Chris.

This one particularly grabbed me as I was perusing the last few pages of the thread (I haven't been around for a while).

...Mike

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I always enjoy looking at your work, Chris.

This one particularly grabbed me as I was perusing the last few pages of the thread (I haven't been around for a while).

...Mike

Thanks, Mike. It was one of my favorite places. Check out the photos I made inside the house.

 

[mfunnell]

Thanks, Mike. It was one of my favorite places. Check out the photos I made inside the house.

Chris, thanks for refreshing my memory of those - I do remember them from some time ago but they're certainly worth another look. I'd be interested in seeing what they're doing to the spot ("..still under construction in January of 2013..") if you ever get out that way, if only in contrast to what you've shown as "before".

...Mike

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Chris, thanks for refreshing my memory of those - I do remember them from some time ago but they're certainly worth another look. I'd be interested in seeing what they're doing to the spot ("..still under construction in January of 2013..") if you ever get out that way, if only in contrast to what you've shown as "before".

...Mike

Last time I was out that way, a large warehouse and factory had been built, a huge complex with a couple of buildings that covered considerably more land than the land this house sat on. They bought several properties to put together the land for it. I can't remember what company the stuff was built for though. Some construction was still taking place last time I saw it a few weeks ago.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I first photographed this patriotic mural on the wall next to Whutnots & Doodads Secondhand Merchandise a year before I made this photograph. The mural is now peeling off the cinderblock wall.

There have been a few other murals on this wall over the years. When I was a teenager, it had a large handgun with an appeal to the neighborhood's residents to stop gang violence. Back then the building was a laundromat.

The building is on Broadway in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I photographed it last Sunday afternoon.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I spotted this man dancing on the corner of Lafayette Street and Wallace Street in Fort Wayne's inner-city last Friday evening as I was heading downtown.

In the last few years there has been an explosion in the number of businesses here hiring people to hold signs on street corners like this. In the advertising industry, they're known as "Human Directionals." Some of them wear attention-getting costumes. This guy was the first that I've seen wearing a costume that covers every part of his body. The covering of his head does not even have eye holes!

I thought it was rather disturbing, because the costume completely dehumanized the man by taking away the thing that most distinguishes an individual: his face. I talked to him for a few minutes, and it was strangely awkward to converse with a faceless man.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Fort Wayne apparently has a Nazi who doesn't like the city very much. This graffiti, which includes a swastika, SS runes, and the sentiment "**** this city", was spray-painted on the side of a house on Broadway, just south of Dewald Street, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I shot this last Sunday.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Yesterday evening, I drove down to Muncie, Indiana and made this photograph. I photographed this little office supply store at the very end of the day as the sun was setting. Thomas Business Center has a huge American flag in the window; but interestingly enough, they do not have a sign with the name of the store anywhere on the building! I had to look it up on the internet. The store is on Franklin Street in Muncie, Indiana.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I shot this saturday evening.

This patriotic mural adorns the big brick wall on the side of Markle 66, a gas station and auto repair shop at the corner of Clark Street and Morse Street in Markle, Indiana. Markle is a small town that straddles the border between Wells and Huntington Counties.

The text under the bald eagle says, "Pride Strength Freedom." I photographed it around 9pm, as the last light of the day was fading away.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

This abandoned drive-in movie theatre stands at the intersection of State Road 3 and State Road 28 in Delaware County, Indiana, just north of Muncie. It was open until about 2002, and has deteriorated pretty badly in the decade since then.

This is the theatre's main screen. There is a smaller one on the other side of the lot. I photographed the Ski-Hi Drive-In last Sunday evening, around 8:30pm.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

This is the gas station in Markle, Indiana, that I posted a photo of earlier with the mural of the eagle and flag. I shot it last Saturday evening at last light.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I saw this old beat-up steel storage shed along State Road 3, right where the highway bypass begins on the northern edge of Munice, Indiana. The owner of the property said that he has had problems with scrap metal thieves, so he put up security cameras and painted this warning on the front of the shed: "Keep out. Don't Even Ask. There are cameras."

I photographed it last Sunday, around 9pm, as the sun was beginning to set behind the building.

 

[--s]

ineresting as always, chris. amazing impressions from everyday public small town life. thank you!

 

[KansanTim]

ineresting as always, chris. amazing impressions from everyday public small town life. thank you!

Fort Wayne isn't that small, at least not to me. I'm sure it's one of the 100 most populous metro areas in the USA.

 

[KansanTim]

It's a fascinating thread to scroll through, Chris. Some great photos in it, too, beyond their documentary value.

 

[Maiku]

I agree with everyone else Chris, this thread is excellent.

Do you take requests? On page 8 you posted a photo of Coney Island Dogs Restaurant. I would be interested to see more photos of the place. If you got them post them. Please.

 

[--s]

Fort Wayne isn't that small, at least not to me. I'm sure it's one of the 100 most populous metro areas in the USA.

that may well be. but it looks like chris is covering more of the rural aspects of that metro area, at least to me.