Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
I photographed this tree on a foggy March morning. It stands in a vacant lot at the corner of Nuttman Avenue and Ardmore Avenue in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
I think that the chain hanging from the tree once held a tire swing. When I was young, there was an old trailer on the property, which was demolished several years ago.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
This storefront is on Main Street in the small town of Hudson, Indiana. All of the storefronts in Hudson were vacant except this one, the post office, and a bar. This one was closed when I was there on a Tuesday morning, and I don't know if it is still in business.
Judging from the stuff I could see through the front windows, this place is or was an antique shop. The traffic light over the door is the sort of thing that you see as an attention-getter on many antique stores in Indiana.
The second-floor door leading to a long fall to a hard sidewalk is something I have seen on a lot of old Main Street commercial buildings in small towns. I imagine that they must have had balconies to walk out on to when they were built. I wonder why they're gone now.
Darthfeeble
But you can call me Steve
I just love this thread! Keep it up Chris. This is Photography with a capitol P.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
Thanks, Darthfeeble! I have a lot of new work coming. I shoot faster than I can scan and edit, so my backlog is big.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
This is Main Street in the small town of Hudson, Indiana. The tiny post office is surrounded by vacant storefronts, and a beautiful old street clock stands on the sidewalk in front of the post office.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
I photographed this house last Friday in the small town of Fremont, Indiana. Fremont is in Steuben County, in the extreme northeast corner of both the county and the state of Indiana, very close to the Michigan and Ohio state lines.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
This is the town clock on Main Street in the small town of Hudson, Indiana. A lot of Indiana's small towns have clocks like this one, usually on the town's "Main Street" or in front of the courthouse if the town is a county seat.
Despite its aged appearance, the clock in Hudson runs and keeps accurate time.
Hudson is a very small town on the southern edge of Steuben County. It adjoins the larger town of Ashley, and the paired towns are often referred to as "Ashley-Hudson." While Ashley is still a pretty healthy town, Hudson has few functioning businesses. Most of the Main Street storefronts are vacant, including the two visible in this photograph.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
I've just learned that Mary Mora died earlier this month at age 99. She was one of the most interesting people that I have ever met, and I spent a lot of time talking to her and photographing her when I lived in New Mexico.
She owned a bar in the tiny town of Cerrillos, New Mexico. Her father opened it when she was young, and she took it over after he died. Before that, she had been a school teacher. The bar was overrun with her many cats, and when people would say they didn't like the cats, she would tell the cat-haters to "Get the Hell Out!"
The last one was made during my last visit to Mary in 2011. Her health was giving out, and she was having trouble remembering things.
You can read her story and see the rest of my photos of her on my website: http://chriscrawfordphoto.com/chris-results.php?category=24
She owned a bar in the tiny town of Cerrillos, New Mexico. Her father opened it when she was young, and she took it over after he died. Before that, she had been a school teacher. The bar was overrun with her many cats, and when people would say they didn't like the cats, she would tell the cat-haters to "Get the Hell Out!"
The last one was made during my last visit to Mary in 2011. Her health was giving out, and she was having trouble remembering things.
You can read her story and see the rest of my photos of her on my website: http://chriscrawfordphoto.com/chris-results.php?category=24
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
This smiley face water tower stands in Memorial Park in the small town of Ashley, Indiana. The town is very proud of it; The signs on the edge of town, and the town's website, have a picture of the water tower and the slogan: "Home of the Smiley Face."
A lot of midwestern small towns have happy faces painted on their water towers, though not all of them are the traditional smiley face yellow.
Ashley is on the northern edge of Dekalb County, with a small portion jutting up into Steuben County. It adjoins the smaller Steuben County town of Hudson, and the twinned towns are often referred to as Ashley-Hudson.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
This old brick building is on Toledo Street, the "Main Street" of the small town of Fremont, Indiana. The fire escape on the front makes it look like something taken from a large city and dropped into the small town, where it looks out of place.
The first floor is home to a storefront church, The Well At Fremont Baptist Church. The sign on the door has the name of the church and the pastor, Carl Esque.
Confusingly, the lettering on the door's window says "Brick House." I originally thought it was the name of the building, but research showed that The Brick House was the name of another storefront church that occupied the space before The Well At Fremont.
At the top of the building's front facade is a limestone block with the linked-ring logo of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Organizations like the Odd Fellows and Freemasons built many interesting buildings like this one in Indiana's small towns, though many are no longer used by the groups that built them.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
Wildwood Liquors closed in January, a few weeks before I made this photograph. The store, located on the corner of Broadway and Wildwood Avenue, was a local legend in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
As long as I can remember, Wildwood was known for its armed employees who shot numerous would-be robbers over the years. The store had a sign on the door warning that robbers would be shot, and every time it happened, it was all over the news. Despite the store's notoriety, it was still robbed fairly often. Criminals are not the smartest people in the world!
Lss
Well-known
Quite a story, and an interesting looking building.
Wildwood Liquors closed in January, a few weeks before I made this photograph. The store, located on the corner of Broadway and Wildwood Avenue, was a local legend in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
As long as I can remember, Wildwood was known for its armed employees who shot numerous would-be robbers over the years. The store had a sign on the door warning that robbers would be shot, and every time it happened, it was all over the news. Despite the store's notoriety, it was still robbed fairly often. Criminals are not the smartest people in the world!
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
I always think of the Darwin Awards when I think of Wildwood Liquors. Particularly this story about a man who tried to rob a gun store.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
This handmade plywood replica of the Beatles' Yellow Submarine stands next to a house on the east side of Juliette Avenue, south of Hale Avenue, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was not a thing I would expect to find in this working-class neighborhood, which leans more redneck than hippie.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
This is one of the most perfectly formed trees that I have ever seen. It is in a field along Lima Road (Indiana State Road 3), just north of Hathaway Road, a little south of Huntertown, Indiana.
I have watched it grow bigger and bigger each year for nearly 20 years now. The evergreens that surround the tree's base were not there back then.
I made this photograph on a rainy January evening.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
The banner says: "Welcome Back From Afghanistan Laura!" The U.S. Army soldier on the banner is Laura Bonano, and her Welcome Home sign is in front of a house on West Main Street, which runs through a working-class neighborhood just west of downtown, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
This is a crop of the image above, showing the details of the banner.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
Today was Indiana's primary election day, so here's my favorite political photo. I shot it seven years ago, it gets to be more and more true with each passing year.
Someone spray painted "Insert Politicians" on this dumpster at Hickory Creek Apartments in the Waynedale area of Fort Wayne.
I think it's funny that the vandal was politically aware enough to protest, but not smart enough to spell politicians correctly.
I think it's funny that the vandal was politically aware enough to protest, but not smart enough to spell politicians correctly.
The dumpster was replaced with a shiny new one soon after I made this photograph in February, 2009.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
This storefront is on Broadway, just south of Main Street, in Butler, Indiana. The message painted on the front window says the store has moved. I wonder why they left a snowman behind?
This is the northern end of a set of old brick commercial buildings that sit empty on the west side of Broadway. A local man who stopped to talk to me while I was photographing told me that the buildings are going to be torn down soon.
Butler is a small town in the northeastern corner of Dekalb County, just a few miles west of the border with Ohio. I went there to photograph yesterday morning.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
This old industrial building sits vacant on the north side of Main Street, just east of Broadway, in Butler, Indiana. It was formerly the home of a company called Engineered Materials, Inc.
The mural on the western end of the building depicts silhouetted American soldiers under an American flag. When I was photographing it, the woman who owns the hair salon across the street came out and told me that someone should repaint it, since the paint is peeling.
Butler is a small town in the northeastern corner of Dekalb County, just a few miles west of the border with Ohio.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
"You should take pictures of THAT!" my son exclaimed as we walked out of the Walmart store at the Apple Glen Shopping Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana on the evening of May 2, 2016. By the time he said it, I was already thinking of how I would compose the pictures!
The object of our attention was a minivan sitting in one of the handicapped parking spaces near one of the store's entrances. It was COMPLETELY covered in political signs and stickers, snow globes, angel figurines, and Christmas decorations. An American flag and a Gadsden flag (the "Don't Tread On Me" rattlesnake flag that was adopted by the Tea Party movement) flew from the top of the van.
The van belongs to Lynda Farley, a 65 year old woman from Kentucky who was visiting Fort Wayne. She described herself as a "Militant Capitalist Smoker" and the leader of the "American Smokers Party."
The van, which Lynda called the Liberty Van, is covered in signs advocating for a wide range of rightwing political ideas. Everything from standard conservative ideas (opposition to abortion, support for gun rights, and dislike of President Obama) all the way to some of the most ridiculous conspiracy theories (The UN is trying to enslave us, government is using the pharmaceutical industry to poison us, public schools turn kids into Communists).
Lynda Farley's main concern, however, is smoking. She likes to smoke, and she is not happy about all of the laws that have been put into effect in recent years to restrict smoking in public places. She told me that Indiana, one of the most conservative states in the country, became "Communist" when it passed a statewide ban on smoking in restaurants!
Lynda truly believes that smoking cigarettes is a completely harmless pastime that does NOT cause cancer or any other health problems. She asserted that the government, working with the drug industry, has spread lies about tobacco in order to increase sales of smoking cessation aids, like nicotine gum and nicotine patches.
She handed me a flyer with a photo of a woman lighting a cigarette off a candle on her 100th birthday cake. The caption said; "She lived 102 years. Tragic example of premature smoking caused death.
As I was talking to Lynda and photographing her and her van, a number of people stopped and snapped photos with their phones. One man walked up to us and asked, with a chuckle, "Is Alex Jones in there?" Jones is probably the most famous pusher of rightwing conspiracy theories in the United States, best known for his Infowars and Prison Planet websites.
Here are some close crops of the photos above so you can see the stuff better:
