Some new photos from Fort Wayne

[Gareth Rees]

Chris, I've been enthralled by this thread and your images for some time now. The images are excellent and demonstrate your undoubtedly huge talent as a photographer.
I have been thinking of trying to do something similar here in rural Wales where I live...documenting life in the farming community round here.
In the past I've concentrated on landscapes and mountain landscapes in Scotland where I worked and walked the hills for many years as a dental surgeon, before becoming an ordained Minister.
You show me that I don't need to travel to exotic places inorder to have the opportunity to make wonderful pictures!
I hope you will continue with this good work for some time to come.

Thank you for sharing your work and best wishes.
Gareth

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Chris, I've been enthralled by this thread and your images for some time now. The images are excellent and demonstrate your undoubtedly huge talent as a photographer.
I have been thinking of trying to do something similar here in rural Wales where I live...documenting life in the farming community round here.
In the past I've concentrated on landscapes and mountain landscapes in Scotland where I worked and walked the hills for many years as a dental surgeon, before becoming an ordained Minister.
You show me that I don't need to travel to exotic places inorder to have the opportunity to make wonderful pictures!
I hope you will continue with this good work for some time to come.

Thank you for sharing your work and best wishes.
Gareth

Gareth,

You should do it. Are you still a minister? If so, the community knows you, and you know them, so you'll be able to document the people more easily than someone like me. I live in a city of 250,000. Everyone here is a stranger, and I'm more of a stranger in the small towns I often shoot in. There is definitely beauty in any place. Wales should be a very interesting place anyway, it is, to me, an exotic place...much different than where I live, though you probably think Wales is mundane and Indiana exotic.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

This is some of the stuff Mary Mora has on display on the counter behind her bar. She was very religious and patriotic, as the two bumper stickers show. The little card next to the cat's backside has the same message she has written on her tip jar: God Knows If You Don't Tip!

I shot this in 2007. Mary's Bar is in Cerrillos, New Mexico. Mary is 98 years old now and still keeps her bar open.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Here's another view of Mary's Bar, also from 2007.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I taught English at Fort Wayne's South Side High School in 2013. I later ran into a lot of my students during the summer, while photographing the annual Three Rivers Festival at Headwaters Park. Two of these three girls were in one of my classes, and they asked me to take a picture of them together when they saw me at the festival.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

IGA stores are a chain of franchised supermarkets. Most of them are located in small towns like this one in Churubusco, Indiana. The stores are quite small compared to modern supermarkets in large cities like Fort Wayne, and this one still feels like something out of the 1960s. I photographed it yesterday afternoon. It is the place with the great sugar cookies in one of my previous posts.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

It is very common to see handpainted signs posted along highways in rural Indiana exhorting people to beleive in Christ. This example of roadside evangelism stands on the edge of a soybean field on US-33 in rural Allen County, a few miles northwest of Fort Wayne.

It paraphrases John 14:6 - "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

I photographed it Sunday afternoon.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

This tribute to U.S. Marines who have died in our wars in the Middle East hangs on the fence around the back yard of a house on Tillman Road, just east of South Anthony Boulevard, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The smaller flag on a pole in the back yard has a motorcycle printed on it! I photographed it yesterday evening.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

This tree stands in front of a mobile home on Grant Street in Yoder, a village in southwest Allen County, Indiana. The tree's branches are festooned with old shoes and toys, and an ancient kid-sized motorcycle sits atop the tree.

The old man who lives there told me that his grandchildren and the neighborhood kids put the shoes in the tree. The sign, he told me, quotes from the Bible: "Until you have walked in my shoes."

I photographed it this afternoon in a light rain.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

This group of broken-looking trees stands behind an abandoned barn between a harvested wheatfield and a neighboring field full of corn. The fields are on Yoder Road, east of Thiele Road, in rural Allen County, Indiana, south of the city of Fort Wayne.

I photographed it Tuesday evening, around 8pm.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Here is another photograph from the farm that I made the photo in my last post.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

This barn is in front of the trees and the cornfield from my last two posts.

The old woman who owns it said that it was built during the Civil War in the early 1860s.

According to her, it was still in good condition until the summer of 2012, when the area was hit by a severe storm whose high winds damaged a lot of buildings in the Fort Wayne area. She is trying to decide if it is worth having it rebuilt, but I doubt that she will given the extent of the damage and the cost of restoring it.

 

[Black]

Here is another photograph from the farm that I made the photo in my last post.

Not really a landscape kind of a guy, but I must admit, I like the symmetry and minimalistic aspect to this.

 

[Keith]

I agree ... that's ^ a striking image Chris. 🙂

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Black and Keith, thanks. I love simple compositions like this. I often done like more complex ones I do, even if others like them, I like that front and center simplicity that presents the subject without distraction.

 

[furbs]

Here is another photograph from the farm that I made the photo in my last post.

August in Indiana, and is the corn ever tall! A great photo, Chris. Your tips helped me get back into developing film. This month I'll finally get my Rolleiflex back from the shop, and reading this thread has got me excited to shoot square. Thanks for documenting things in such a compelling way.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

August in Indiana, and is the corn ever tall! A great photo, Chris. Your tips helped me get back into developing film. This month I'll finally get my Rolleiflex back from the shop, and reading this thread has got me excited to shoot square. Thanks for documenting things in such a compelling way.

Anthony,

I'm glad I could help you!

One of the cool things about living in Indiana is that we can buy corn on the cob direct from local farmers, picked the day you buy it. $5 for a dozen ears. We eat A LOT of corn in August and September, when the best corn is available.

 

[Keith]

Anthony,

I'm glad I could help you!

One of the cool things about living in Indiana is that we can buy corn on the cob direct from local farmers, picked the day you buy it. $5 for a dozen ears. We eat A LOT of corn in August and September, when the best corn is available.

Alternately you can flatten the lot and build a baseball field! 😀

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Alternately you can flatten the lot and build a baseball field! 😀

We just spent several millions building one downtown.

 

[Keith]

We just spent several millions building one downtown.

I quite like the baseball culture in your country ... it's spawned some fine movies, not to mention music and books.

There's a couple of teams from the US coming out here fairly soon to play a demo game in Sydney. 🙂