Some new photos from Fort Wayne

flags-no-trespassing-1.jpg


This mailbox is on the side of an old house at the corner of Brackenridge Street and Ewing Street, near the baseball stadium, in downtown Fort Wayne. Like a lot of old houses in the downtown area, this one is a tenement created by dividing a large house into small apartments.​

Given that the house basically has no yard, I am puzzled that the owner felt the need to put a No Trespassing sign on the house!

I photographed it this morning.
​
 
baker-ewing-house-1.jpg


This is the rear of an old house at the corner of Baker Street and Ewing Street in downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana. The house, which faces south on Baker Street, has sat vacant for some time.​

Like most of the houses in this neighborhood, located near Fort Wayne's minor-league baseball stadium, this house is long and narrow. The houses were packed in close together on deep lots with only a small amount of street frontage. The fake brick exterior is actually very similar to asphalt roofing shingles, and is a very common exterior finish on many older houses in the city.​

This is the neighborhood documented by Peter and David Turnley in their book, "McClellan Street." Most of the houses were demolished in the years after they photographed the area to make room for parking lots for the Lincoln National Life Insurance Company, which used to be headquartered in Fort Wayne.​

The few houses and residents that remain in the area are still as impoverished as they were when the Turnley brothers, who grew up in Fort Wayne, photographed them forty years ago. Since Parkview Field was opened in 2009, some of the rundown old houses have been renovated and opened as restaurants.​
 
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On Saturday afternoon, I photographed some flowers in my yard. My back yard was completely covered in bright yellow dandelions! I've never understood why people think they're weeds that need to be killed. Dandelions are beautiful!
 
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Yesterday morning was beautifully foggy in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I photographed this little forest behind Northwood Middle School on Fort Wayne's north side around 7:20am. Within an hour, the fog was gone!
 
wha...?

wha...?

Chris,
why RFF members continue to comment on your truly banal pictures is a puzzle. (to me) ...
more a viewpoint on us than you.
I appreciate your persistence and film dev advice.

Anyway, keep on keeping on.
 
My Chris critique

My Chris critique

I was wrong.

Chris, I've seen your pics here and there but this afternoon I went through a few of your posted pages...
more misses than hits IMO (true of us all) but several "hits" (NOT true of us all : -)

I admire your dedication.
 
Canyongazer said:
I was wrong.

Chris, I've seen your pics here and there but this afternoon I went through a few of your posted pages...
more misses than hits IMO (true of us all) but several "hits" (NOT true of us all : -)

I admire your dedication.
Click to expand...


You're looking at it the wrong way. I don't care about "hits" and "Misses." I'm using photography to tell stories about my hometown, my state, and the interesting people I've met. Each photograph is there because it shows something important to understanding the story.

Would you read a novel by reading only the exciting parts, and dismissing the rest of the chapters as "misses?" Of course not; you would miss out on details that set the scenes, develop the characters, and connect the various subplots within the story together.
 
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I noticed this house because of the very large plastic statue of Jesus Christ standing behind the chairs and table on the sidewalk.​

The house is owned by a Hispanic family. Many Hispanics show their Catholic faith by placing statues of Jesus or Mary in front of their houses. The rest of the lawn decorations look like the sort of tasteless stuff a middle class Anglo housewife would clutter her yard with!​

It is on Wakefield Drive in the Northcrest neighborhood on the north side of Fort Wayne, Indiana. I photographed it Wednesday afternoon.
​
 
Chris, I always look forward to your new installments. Your composition is always tasteful and you see the extraordinary in the ordinary, as well as having a great sense of place in the images and explanations.
So many of the things you have recorded will disappear, never to be seen again. Stories of lives lived, and worlds changed.
So much has transpired in our short lifetimes.

The story is, most times, in the details, like the faux brick asphalt siding. It was common when I was younger, now, it is rare to see what has survived.

Do keep it up.
 
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This American flag hangs on the garage behind an old 19th Century farmhouse on the west side of State Road 1 in Wells County, Indiana. It is just north of the town of Ossian, about 8 miles south of the Waynedale area of Fort Wayne. An old school bell stands on a post next to the garage.

I photographed it yesterday afternoon.
 
Keep up the good work!

I also like this thread, which I have book-marked and visit regularly. I think I like best the combination of the pictures showing ordinary peoples life and houses where they live and your comments to the pictures.

It is a true long-lasting documentary work which many of us respects and gets inspired from!

Best wishes,

Borge
 
dads-old-tires.jpg


When my father bought a new set of tires for his SUV, he kept the old ones and left them leaned up against the side of the little red barn in his back yard.

Old junk like this cluttering the back yard is a common sight in Fort Wayne's lower middle class neighborhoods. The front yards look nice, the back yards are full of crap.​

In the poorer areas, the front yards are full of junk, too!

I photographed the tires last week.
​
 
Canyongazer said:
Chris,
why RFF members continue to comment on your truly banal pictures is a puzzle. (to me) ...
more a viewpoint on us than you.
I appreciate your persistence and film dev advice.

Anyway, keep on keeping on.
Click to expand...

Isn't this the case with all art, or documentary work? If it doesn't speak to you, or me, it seems banal.

Personally, I check this thread regularly, because I want to see what the dog dug up. It amazes me how much Chris has pulled out of one town and it makes me wonder how many stories/subjects I pass during my day.
 
bwcolor said:
Isn't this the case with all art, or documentary work? If it doesn't speak to you, or me, it seems banal.

Personally, I check this thread regularly, because I want to see what the dog dug up. It amazes me how much Chris has pulled out of one town and it makes me wonder how many stories/subjects I pass during my day.
Click to expand...

Thanks, bwcolor. I often show my work to people who live in Fort Wayne, and often they'll says something like, "That is so cool/interesting/beautiful! Where did you find that?" I'll tell them where the subject is located, and you wouldn't believe how many times the response is "I drive down that road every day, and I have never noticed it!"

I'm telling this story, and the people who are living it often learn something from my work. We all live in the same city, but each of us has our own point of view. I'm sharing mine, and opening people's eyes.
 
J.Paul said:
Chris, I always look forward to your new installments. Your composition is always tasteful and you see the extraordinary in the ordinary, as well as having a great sense of place in the images and explanations.
So many of the things you have recorded will disappear, never to be seen again. Stories of lives lived, and worlds changed.
So much has transpired in our short lifetimes.

The story is, most times, in the details, like the faux brick asphalt siding. It was common when I was younger, now, it is rare to see what has survived.

Do keep it up.
Click to expand...

+1 from me.

So much of our 'everyday' is disappearing unrecorded and before our eyes, much of it 'banal' to some.

I, for one, appreciate your photos documenting your built environment, which is so different from mine. Everything is exposed for what is, without artifice, under your democratic gaze... a gaze worthy of Eggleston.

Thank you for your posts, Chris.
 
Good morning, Chris ,

It is Mother's Day here in the USA. We have an early breakfast with granddaughters and lunch with our grandsons later today. While I plan on a few photographs, I hope it will be enough for my compilation later into a story. That story will be part of an overall documentary.

Your storytelling with photos is a lesson that has only recently been an enlightenment for me. It has changed everything. Sometimes it takes awhile for me to understand the simple things. Thank you for your continued work.

Storytelling. The story behind the picture. Everyone loves a story.
 
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