Some new photos from Fort Wayne

newspaper-machines.jpg


These old newspaper vending machines are lined up against the wall next to the loading docks along the front of the Fort Wayne Newspapers building on Main Street in downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana.

The red ones sold Fort Wayne's morning paper, the Journal-Gazette; while the blue ones sold the evening paper, the News-Sentinel.


Fort Wayne Newspapers handles printing and distribution for the city's two daily newspapers, which remain independent of each other in every other respect. Fort Wayne is unique for a midsize American city; few of them still have more than one daily newspaper.
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While I like the pictures, it is the combination of them with the text that makes it really compelling. It becomes story telling.
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
I first photographed this tree a couple of weeks earlier, on a foggy morning with the sun shining through the haze. I made this photograph on another foggy morning, this time with no sun, since the sky was cloudy. This little tree grows on the edge of the parking lot beside Northwood Middle School on Washington Center Road in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Here's the older photo of it:
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I prefer the B&W with its sun star.

Keep them coming, I enjoy this thread a lot.
 
Huss said:
While I like the pictures, it is the combination of them with the text that makes it really compelling. It becomes story telling.
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That's what I'm trying to do. A lot of people complain that some of my photos are 'boring.' That's because they don't understand what I'm doing. I'm not trying to produce a portfolio full of 'showstoppers,' I'm telling stories, and all stories have passages full of action connected by calmer narrative that pulls the story together.
 
newspaper-machines-2.jpg


Another view of the old newspaper machines in front of the Fort Wayne Newspapers building in downtown Fort Wayne. I also have a third photo of them to post later, once I finish editing it.
 
taiwan-express-1.jpg


This Taiwanese restaurant is located at Five Points, the intersection where Sherman Boulevard, Goshen Road, and Lillian Avenue come together on the northwest side of Fort Wayne, Indiana.​

The building looks like an old barn, which it might have been, long ago, before this area became part of the city.​
 
trf-2015-fairy.jpg


This little girl dressed as a fairy princess was standing on the retaining wall in front of Headwaters Park one evening during the 2015 Three Rivers Festival.​

The Three Rivers Festival takes place every summer in July at Headwaters Park in downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana. I go every year and photograph people at the festival.

I'm still trying to finish scanning my photos from this year's festival.
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halloween-2015-1.jpg


A house decorated for Halloween with tombstones for horror movie killers Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Freddie Krueger. The house is on Belle Vista Boulevard in the Belle Vista neighborhood in Waynedale area of Fort Wayne, Indiana.​

I also photographed this house's Christmas decorations in 2014, the year before I made this photograph.​
 
Thanks for sharing your Ft. Wayne Americana

Thanks for sharing your Ft. Wayne Americana

Christopher,
Thanks for sharing this series from your town. I find it interesting to see through your eyes what it's like including your descriptions. Feel like I'm a part of this city and drawn in to the history and the present that you're documenting. Thought about a book?
By the way, like to see that you go back and get a different shot of a the same scene. Thanks for taking us on a visual journey that I find interesting!
 
Chris:

"A lot of people complain that some of my photos are 'boring.' That's because they don't understand what I'm doing."

Yup, and I confess to being one of such people.
I made a snap judgement based on looking at about just one page of your pictures. Like many snap judgements, it and I were wrong.

Your ongoing paean to this time and that space can only become more and more valued as time goes on.
Keep on keeping on!
 
halloween-2015-2.jpg


An old house decorated for Halloween on West Main Street in Fort Wayne, Indiana. There were several homes in this working-class neighborhood that were decorated for Halloween, but most people in Fort Wayne didn't bother decorating their houses this year.
 
Chris is a fine photographer and I would not label the pictures as ''boring'' but I wonder how much there is to discover and share when you live in Fort Wayne. I see a continuous stream of porches, American flags, pick-up trucks and barns. Photos aside, my instinctive reaction would be to run: it's a big world out there and, as far as I know, you only have one life to discover it.
 
Peter Wijninga said:
Chris is a fine photographer and I would not label the pictures as ''boring'' but I wonder how much there is to discover and share when you live in Fort Wayne. I see a continuous stream of porches, American flags, pick-up trucks and barns. Photos aside, my instinctive reaction would be to run: it's a big world out there and, as far as I know, you only have one life to discover it.
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I lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico for a few years but returned to my hometown because of my son. His mother is mentally ill, and was unable to care for him. I came back here when he was 11 years old, giving up a good income and a good life for him.

RFF members who have been around long enough remember how desperately poor we were after he came to live with me, because there were no jobs here that pay decent wages unless you're able to do factory work or construction work. I can't, I have serious health problems. I ended up going back to school to earn my masters degree and became a teacher, and I make enough to live now.

My son is 18 years old now, and just started his university studies. He was given a scholarship to study computer science at Purdue University's Fort Wayne campus. He has not seen or heard from his mother in more than 5 years.

My son is why I came back here, and his education is why we are staying, for now.
 
We've had this discussion before and I was hoping that upon completion of High School your son would enroll in a university...any university...to read now that he did so in FORT WAYNE just blows me away. It seems that you are married to this town. All this said, I am looking forward to your photographic explorations. Cheers, Peter
 
Peter Wijninga said:
We've had this discussion before and I was hoping that upon completion of High School your son would enroll in a university...any university...to read now that he did so in FORT WAYNE just blows me away. It seems that you are married to this town. All this said, I am looking forward to your photographic explorations. Cheers, Peter
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We simply can't afford to send him somewhere else. Its all about the money, and we just plain don't have any. I make barely enough to live after paying my medical bills and student loans. Mack is going to Purdue's Fort Wayne campus, which has a very good computer science program, and thanks to the scholarship he was given, it is costing us nothing. He'll graduate with $0 in student loans with a degree that will get him a high paying job. He'll have to leave Fort Wayne to find a job, and he's fine with that. He doesn't like it here anymore than I do, and he is the only reason I'm here, so I'll leave too after he graduates.
 
skeletunes-1.jpg


This old building has been home to a number of bars over the years. About a year before I made this photograph, it became Skeletunes Lounge. Yes, that is a life-size skeleton riding a bicycle over the front door!​

Skeletunes is on the corner of West Main Street and Cherry Street in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I photographed it yesterday evening while I was out photographing Halloween decorations.
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trf-2015-thumbsup.jpg


This guy saw me photographing at the 2015 Three Rivers Festival and asked me to take his picture. When I snapped the picture, he gave me the thumbs up and smiled!
 
patriot-pizza.jpg


When I made this photograph in 2008, this building was home to Main Street Pizza. The pizzaria's name was later changed to Patriot Pizza. It is on the corner of Main Street and South Street (State Road 101) in the small town of Monroeville, Indiana.

I drove by it yesterday afternoon, and was saddened to see that the building had been repainted an ugly poop-brown color, covering the mural.
 
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