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I keep a visual diary of my walks.
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I don’t think buffalo ever roamed the great scrubby plains of grass and pavement I found near Buffalo, New York. This was close to my hotel during a recent visit.
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Vast empty stretches were contained by fencing, keeping me either in or out; I am not sure which.
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Homes along Slade Avenue overlook fields and pavement where there are remains of yellow-painted curbs. Were the curbs created in expectation of new development, or left behind following some tear down? One story I heard is the vast expanse was paved in hope of a football stadium being built here one day.
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Below Ridge Road, an empty quiet and lack of people felt like I was heading into terra incognita, but others clearly visit and leave their mark.
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Are we tired of the concept of finding beauty in the mundane? I am not.
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Kmart, in the distance on the right, is open for business. Inside, the store seemed as vast, empty, and littered with things I didn’t understand as outside.
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Running along the back of Kmart, powerlines and rail tracks head out of town.
A most enjoyable “read” Anne-Marie. I’ll forward this to a friend who’s just atarted a blog.
Thank you!
Beautiful work. I love the way you have captured the banal landscape of the city/suburbs. You haven’t made it beautiful, you’re captured the bleak emptiness and made it interesting and familiar. That familiarity, that feeling that we’ve all felt, standing in an empty parking lot on a cold day searching the horizon for a bit of beauty or a glimpse of promise that nature might be hiding. Love it.
Thank you Paul.
This is a really engaging group of photographs. Buffalo is such a fertile ground for work like this and these shots really describe the feeling of the location well, and, there’s a formal sophistication that’s really engaging. I’m really enjoying the processing of these shots and am becoming increasingly drawn towards doing as little as needed to the file and letting it speak more as it the moment occurred. Heavy-handed processing is starting to look very ephemeral and it won’t withstand time very well, methinks. Also, I’m seriously thinking about ProPhoto 6 – my site is a wreck and I like this format.
Thank you John. I warmly appreciate your thoughtful comments. I am gearing more and more towards less saturation. I like to shoot on cloudy days when there are just bursts of light that come through .. it can add a subtle warmth, but everything is kind of desaturated and that is my preference. On prophoto .. I am clueless about how to build a website. I really had to do a lot of stumbling around to get here. Now I think I have to add some galleries. I have just been doing the periodic photo blog stories.
Beautiful work
Thank you for taking me on this journey with you. Like others voiced, I’m struck by the emptiness. And with all the ground that you covered, not a soul in sight! Sending love, Elise