The dolls can read!

[paulfish4570]

oh no, no fish. that ol' drum already had flies laying eggs on it. they're oo bony to eat even fresh.
that poor headless barbie has been digitally photograph in a fire ant hill and other such, uh, interesting places ...

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

sorry, i couldn't resist posting a digital dead barbie pic i shot a couple of summers ago here on the river:

i still have the doll - hidden in the bbq grill - and need to get her out again for some film rather than digital work.

chris, i really like your work. i noticed it today with the cats thread, and now the doll thread. you have your own vision. keep it up.

Cool pic! We should start a dolls thread. I know that Amy Medina (Dangrabbit) has some really awesome doll photos too. She carries a bunch of them in her pickup truck!

Here's a doll photo I shot last summer, months before I found the Doll House. I found this one as I photographed it. A couple hours later it was gone

 

[Steve Bellayr]

That second Barbie looks a tad overweight!

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

The headless doll is eerie. You live in the midwest. How do these images compose your idea or concept of the area that you live in? I ask this because these are not either urban or surburban images.

I live in a midsize city. The house is actually on the edge of Fort Wayne, Indiana's largest city. 250,000 people. There are several expensive housing additions built up around it; the city is swallowing it up. This was a farmhouse years ago and was pretty rural. The photos are not really about Fort Wayne or rural Indiana though. More about abandonment.

 

[Steve Bellayr]

I wonder: Sometimes the simple photographs of disappearing scenes become more valuable that artistic images. I say this after looking at the work of A. Curtis, brother of the more famous Curtis, photographer of the disappearing Indians, who photographed Seatle, Washington. Though not spectacular photographs individually but as a lasting record of 50 years they present a visual history of the people and the city. Though yours do not make the attempt of straight documents they do have that eerie of element of caplturing something that is disappearing.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

well, the sweetly macabre feel is really getting to me, Chris.

i think i need to buy one of these!

They're all available! 😀

 

[paulfish4570]

man, i love the real estate doll!
there is an army/navy surplus store nearby that has been using toddler size dolls/mannikins for years to adverstise, dressing them up differently from time to time. i shot them 10-11 years ago, and had a huge print made and framed for my daughter when whe was still in college. it was for a joke because she was totally creeped out by them whenever we drove by. she never hung that photo. gee, i wonder why ...

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I wonder: Sometimes the simple photographs of disappearing scenes become more valuable that artistic images. I say this after looking at the work of A. Curtis, brother of the more famous Curtis, photographer of the disappearing Indians, who photographed Seatle, Washington. Though not spectacular photographs individually but as a lasting record of 50 years they present a visual history of the people and the city. Though yours do not make the attempt of straight documents they do have that eerie of element of caplturing something that is disappearing.

A lot of my other work is more documentary, so much here is disappearing. Small towns and rural areas are dying, and in big cities like Ft. Wayne old buildings are bulldozed and replaced with godawful postmodern monstrosities; steel boxes with fake architectural elements pasted on the front. uggh. I want people to remember that these places were once beautiful in a genuine way, unlike the ugly falseness of the contrived facade that passes for the fronts of buildings now.

The dolls do represent what was. The house was once some family's home, the dolls the child(ren)'s friends. The dolls have been forgotten and the life of the place seemingly extinguished.

 

[Jack Conrad]

Dolls aren't really ever forgotten. Abandoned yes, but not forgotten.

As if sealed in the memory chamber. Sort of alive in

silent witness to the violent progress and whispered songs time leaves on the sweet blue lips of eternal children.

Er... okeey, You might have guessed dolls tend to creep me out too. Must run in my family.

Real estate doll is sick wicked cool.

 

[Jack Conrad]

Dead fish Barbie is awesome too.

 

[paulfish4570]

speaking of barbie, i just got her out of her bbq storage facility. the mildew on her legs has gotten much worse. looks like she's wearing tawdry black hose. poor thing. when out for a long walk, my daughter and i found her at the end of a driveway, headless, once-proud, uh, chest crushed and creased (getting run over by a car will do that), and naked as the day she was molded.
har lequin dolls creep me out. in fact, a lot of dolls creep me out. i think the creep/fear goes back to an old, rod serlingepisode of twilight zone where some dolls rubbed out several people ...

 

[paulfish4570]

i love the idea of a dolls thread. headless barbie said she is ready. well, she would have but she has no head ...

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

speaking of barbie, i just got her out of her bbq storage facility. the mildew on her legs has gotten much worse. looks like she's wearing tawdry black hose. poor thing. when out for a long walk, my daughter and i found her at the end of a driveway, headless, once-proud, uh, chest crushed and creased (getting run over by a car will do that), and naked as the day she was molded.
har lequin dolls creep me out. in fact, a lot of dolls creep me out. i think the creep/fear goes back to an old, rod serlingepisode of twilight zone where some dolls rubbed out several people ...

Ever seen the Child's Play movies?

 

[paulfish4570]

nooooooooooooooooooooo! and i will not see such movies!
barbie just came out of retirement. 28F outside. what a trouper! she posed for a few shots to finish off a roll of bw400cn in my bessa. it's off to walgreens!

 

[kuvvy]

 

[degruyl]

I caught a young couple making out on a table in the shed behind the house one afternoon back in October, when it was still warm outside here in Indiana.

Someone has to say it: Did you get any pictures?

Great shots, Chris. Keep it up. And don't be too upset when they unexpectedly knock the place down.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Someone has to say it: Did you get any pictures?

Great shots, Chris. Keep it up. And don't be too upset when they unexpectedly knock the place down.

Not of the kids making out, lol

I do expect the house to be demolished eventually. The land is for sale and is surrounded by newly built housing developments. Happens to a lot of the places I photograph.

 

[Penceler]

This is getting a little scary.

John