Some new photos from Fort Wayne

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This big old house is on West Main Street in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Like most large houses in this working-class neighborhood on the city's west side, this one is divided into apartments. A century ago, it was a grand house in a wealthy neighborhood.

I photographed it at the end of November, when people all over Fort Wayne were putting up their Christmas decorations.
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
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I photographed this house, just south of Fort wayne, this evening.
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Now this is the sort of thing that would really bemuse people in the UK. We don't go in for flying the national, Union, flag - a far more likely display of a flag would be at a sporting event where the appropriate flag for England, Scotland, or Wales would be flown/worn/painted on faces, or perhaps a small car sticker, or even a county flag sticker especially for places like Devon and Cornwall or Northumberland, a long way from London. People seem to far more interested in being from their little, sometimes very little, bit of the Union than a part of the Union as a whole.

We also don't generally attach much importance to where we were educated, unless it was Oxbridge of course, so while you'll see University tops and things, usually worn by students or tourists, the likelihood of someone displaying it on their garden bench would be close to nil.

Wheels from old farm implements are a different matter, though!

Adrian
 
Muggins said:
Now this is the sort of thing that would really bemuse people in the UK. We don't go in for flying the national, Union, flag - a far more likely display of a flag would be at a sporting event where the appropriate flag for England, Scotland, or Wales would be flown/worn/painted on faces, or perhaps a small car sticker, or even a county flag sticker especially for places like Devon and Cornwall or Northumberland, a long way from London. People seem to far more interested in being from their little, sometimes very little, bit of the Union than a part of the Union as a whole.

We also don't generally attach much importance to where we were educated, unless it was Oxbridge of course, so while you'll see University tops and things, usually worn by students or tourists, the likelihood of someone displaying it on their garden bench would be close to nil.

Wheels from old farm implements are a different matter, though!

Adrian
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Americans who display things with college or university logos and names like the bench in my photo are not usually graduates of the schools! They're sports fans who, for reasons I have never understood, are fans of a particular school's basketball and/or football (American Football) teams. I'd understand students or alumni of a school being fans of the school's athletic teams, but most college sports fans here are not college graduates.
 
Hey Chris, I am just checking in again to catch up.
You know that I love your work. It's just fabulous.

I now lots of people who have university stickers and flags and never attended the school - but they are sports fans. Two guy here (Massachusetts) have Norte Dame flags and stickers on their cars and campers only for that reason - they like the football team.

I have a flagpole in the front yard with the American and Italian flags flying year 'round. Mostly as a tribute to my parents and grandparents, more than wild nationalism on my part.
 
christmas-house-2.jpg


A few years before I made this photograph, I photographed this little house on Warren Street in an inner-city neighborhood in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Back then, the house was painted white, and now it is dark gray. Such joyous holiday decorations are more common in poor areas of the city than in the wealthier areas. I made this one near the end of November.
 
Michael Markey said:
Probably reflects the fact that school sport has a higher profile in the US than it does in the UK.
Interesting stuff as usual Chris.
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You may well be right - I can think of a very few school/university sporting events myself, but the only one I suspect is really common knowledge is the Boat Race.

One of the things that make Chris's thread so interesting is the contrasts between places it throws up.

Adrian
 
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This is a side window on the enclosed porch at a house on the corner of Wabash Avenue and Winch Street in an inner-city neighborhood on the east side of Fort Wayne, Indiana. I photographed it yesterday afternoon.
 
There are a lot of patriotic-themed displays in the US -- flags, decals, and of course lapel pins for example. People seem to mistake jingoism for patriotism often.

As for the college and university displays, don't get me going. As noted, it's not so much love for the school as it is being a fan of the school's football (NOT soccer!) or basketball team. Bigtime college sports here is an abomination.

Anyway -- I love the pictures, Chris. They give a great sense of the place.
 
KoNickon said:
There are a lot of patriotic-themed displays in the US -- flags, decals, and of course lapel pins for example. People seem to mistake jingoism for patriotism often.

As for the college and university displays, don't get me going. As noted, it's not so much love for the school as it is being a fan of the school's football (NOT soccer!) or basketball team. Bigtime college sports here is an abomination.

Anyway -- I love the pictures, Chris. They give a great sense of the place.
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I don't understand college sports either. These players are supposed to be students, but they rarely graduate because they're required to spend many hours a day practicing and playing. The school, TV broadcasters, manufacturers of products carrying school logos, coaches, etc. all get very wealthy off these young men and women and the 'students' get nothing.

I teach high school, and our athletes are students first. They play because they enjoy the game, and the school has sports teams because its a fun, positive activity that keeps kids (both players and their classmates who cheer for them at the games) engaged with school. It is NOT a business and no one makes much money off it. Teachers who work fulltime at our school coach the teams, not professional coaches. College sports needs to be returned to that sort of system.
 
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Driving through the neighborhood where I grew up in Fort Wayne, I noticed an oversized American flag flying behind a house on Sandpoint Road. The flag is so large, and the pole it flies from insufficiently tall, that when the wind is not blowing, the end nearly touches the ground.

The owner of the house said that the flag belongs to Hipskind Concrete, the construction company whose lot is behind her property, so I went to talk to them to get permission to photograph it. Mrs. Hipskind told me that the flag had been given to her and her husband by a friend who got it while serving in the military.

I photographed it yesterday afternoon.
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
The owner of the house said...
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Hi Chris,

As I've said before, I love your work. I'm curious, do you often try to get permission when shooting private property, especially when shooting from a public place like a sidewalk? Do you find in general that folks are generally more welcoming, or more hesitant to let you shoot?

Keep up the great work!
 
rjbuzzclick said:
Hi Chris,

As I've said before, I love your work. I'm curious, do you often try to get permission when shooting private property, especially when shooting from a public place like a sidewalk? Do you find in general that folks are generally more welcoming, or more hesitant to let you shoot?

Keep up the great work!
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If the owners are there, I ask as a matter of courtesy and because the best photos are often made closer to the place than you can get on the street. In the case of the big flag at Hipskinds, I grew up in that neighborhood. My parents and grandmother still live down the street from this place, and I went to high school with the daughter of the people whose house the flag stands behind. I had never met the Hipskinds' before but since I know many of their neighbors, I did not want to be rude to them.

In 20 years, I have been told no very, very few times. You could count them on one hand. People in Indiana do not like outsiders, but I always tell them I was born in Fort Wayne. Even in small towns, that fact opens doors because I am still a fellow Hoosier.
 
Muggins said:
One of the things that make Chris's thread so interesting is the contrasts between places it throws up.

Adrian
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I agree always interesting ....I should do more of the same.
In my area they have a local FB page which seeks to document the history and subsequent changes in the neighborhood.
I sometimes contribute to that .
 
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After eating Christmas dinner with my family at my parents house, I walked down Woodheath Avenue, the street I grew up on, photographing some of the houses decorated for Christmas.
 
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