Some new photos from Fort Wayne

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Congratulations, but don't tell Sneaky or he'll expect extra treats.

He demands those every day anyway! #greedy #fatcat

 

[chipgreenberg]

Congratulations Chris. They could not have spent the money better!

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

This beautiful brick house with a giant American flag is on Kensington Boulevard, just north of Lake Avenue, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

 

[RichC]

Some great news came in the mail today. Last month, I applied for an artists' grant from the Community Foundation of Fort Wayne. I got a check in the mail for $800 and a letter saying I'd been awarded one of the grants! This will help us a lot.

Nice to hear some good news for a change!

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

One of the oldest businesses in Waynedale is closing soon. The sign in front of Sandpoint TV Service says "Retirement Clearance Sale." One of two small independent appliance stores in Waynedale, Sandpoint TV Service Company has been in this location on Lower Huntington Road for longer than I can remember. My parents bought a TV here when I was a kid, and they got it repaired there years later when the picture tube died.

The other appliance store in Waynedale is Elwood's Appliances, located just down the street from Sandpoint TV. There are only one or two other independent appliance stores in the rest of Fort Wayne!

Waynedale is an area in the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana that was once a small town. It was annexed by the city in 1957, but still looks and feels like a small town, despite having been part of the second largest city in the state for more than 60 years.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

This house is on Elm Street, just west of Cherry Street, in the working class West Main Street area in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

The cutouts of the Statue of Liberty and a kneeling soldier were made from old laminate countertops! The wooden planter on the porch looks like a coiled-up venomous snake.

I photographed it in November, 2013. This is one of hundreds of photos I have backlogged that I am trying to get added to my website.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

This street musician was dancing and playing his saxophone on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Adams Street in downtown Chicago. I made this photograph more then twenty years ago, when I was an art student, after visiting the Art Institute of Chicago.


This was made on a film I truly miss. The original Agfa APX 400. It was gorgeous in Rodinal 1+50, and I shot a lot of it back then.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

This window washer was hanging on the back side of Westberry Apartments, an old brick high-rise apartment building on the corner of West Berry Street and Fulton Street in downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

For several years now, the local business owners on Wells Street in Fort Wayne, Indiana have been fixing up the storefronts and working with the the city government to rebuild the street's infrastructure.


Unfortunately, the surrounding neighborhood is one of the poorest in the city, and it is common to see people sitting on the park benches along Wells Street using drugs and getting drunk in the middle of the day. This sign appeared on one of the "Wells Corridor" sign posts, and others were affixed to a nearby bench.


It says: "Take Back Our Neighborhood! No Drug."

I photographed it a couple weeks ago.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

The historic Clyde Theatre in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I made this photograph of it during the Covid-19 pandemic. The electronic sign says: "Fort Wayne Strong - United Together."

The theatre was opened as a movie theater in 1951 by Clyde Quimby, who also owned the Quimby Village shopping center, where the theatre is located. The theatre was later renamed the Quimby Village Theatre and changed to a two-screen movie theatre. That's how it was when I was young, when my parents often took my sister and I there to see movies.

The tall "Clyde" sign sticking up from the top of the marquee was gone by the time I began going to see movies there in the early 1980s. The theatre closed in 1993, and after being briefly used as a church, it was abandoned. By the time I photographed it the first time, back in 2008, it had already sat empty for nearly fifteen years.

In 2017, the old theatre was purchased by Chuck Surack, founder of Sweetwater Music, and a nine million dollar renovation began. The outside was restored to nearly the same configuration as it had back in 1951; the theatre got back its original name and the original "Clyde" sign was rebuilt. The inside was transformed into a live music venue, but the art deco lobby was restored to look much as it had originally.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Three Dekalb County Sheriff's Department cars parked on the street in front of Broadway Cafe in the small town of Butler, Indiana. Right after I made this photograph, the deputies all came out of the restaurant and drove off after enjoying their breakfast!


Made with a Horizon 202, a Russian-made panoramic camera whose lens rotates during the exposure to capture the wide field of view. The camera was given to me back in 2014 by Blake Billings, who was a good friend to many of us here on RFF before his death last year.

 

[Out to Lunch]

The historic Clyde Theater in Fort Wayne, Indiana

What I forgot to tell you: in 2019, I was on a direct flight from Hong Kong to Toronto and the plane went straight over Fort Wayne! I don't remember seeing this building, though.😀

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

These houses are on the west side of Wells Street, between Archer Avenue and Putnam Street, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. One is patriotically decorated with two American flags, a tinsel star, and bunting. I photographed them last Friday morning.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Last week, I made this series of three abstract images of the clouds in the sky above Churubusco, Indiana.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

A young couple kayaking on the Saint Marys River at Promenade Park in downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana. I thought that the circular ripples in the water in their wake were interesting.


Promenade Park opened in the summer of 2019 on the banks of the Saint Marys River, just west of Headwaters Park, as part of Fort Wayne's efforts to develop the areas around the three rivers that converge in the city. The Saint Marys River and Saint Joseph River come together on the east side of downtown to form the Maumee River, which empties into Lake Erie at Toledo, Ohio.

 

[CharlesDAMorgan]

I love that building - there's such a confidence about Art Deco!

 

[Erik van Straten]

In Utrecht, in The Netherlands, there is some Art Deco too. This used to be a second hand book shop, but, as no one reads books anymore, it is now turned into a gallery for modern art. This is the grand opening of an exhibition, seen from the outside.

Erik.


Leica MP/Cooke Atomal 50mm/TMY400-2/Ilford MGFB

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

These beehives stand on the edge of a cornfield on the Indiana side of State Line Road, south of Hurshtown Road, in rural northeast Allen County, Indiana.


I photographed them last week.

 

[Bob Michaels]

..................... The camera was given to me back in 2014 by Blake Billings, who was a good friend to many of us here on RFF before his death last year.

The weekend I spend with Blake in Memphis is like the time I spent with Al Kaplan, a constant reminder to get away from the keyboard and go out and meet real people face to face.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

The weekend I spend with Blake in Memphis is like the time I spent with Al Kaplan, a constant reminder to get away from the keyboard and go out and meet real people face to face.

I wish that I could have met Blake. I did talk to him on the phone a few times. I have never had the money to travel, and no one I talk to online lives anywhere near me 🙁


There are several RFF members I'd love to meet someday.