Reflections on an Abandoned House

Abandoned House, Armuchee Valley, Georgia

Please note: A selection of my photographs is now available for sale at very reasonable prices for yourself or for gifts. Visit my new storefront at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/ I'll be writing more about this soon.

 

Exploring Amurchee Valley some years ago in an area where Walker County and Chatooga Counties join, I found a house sitting empty, doors unlocked, furniture still in place, even tools still hanging on the shed wall. Some old couple had passed away, probably, or one or both had gone to a nursing home, leaving no family or anyone who cared about the property. I've found this to be unfortunately common in rural America.

A recurring theme in my photographic work is abandonment. As my artist's statement on the  left side of this blog says, "My domain is the old, the odd, and the ordinary; the beautiful, the abandoned, and the about to vanish away."

So often in my ramblings around the countryside I find things that once were full of life but now lie abandoned and desolate. Old houses, old cars, old churches, old barns, old mills: for no reason I've ever been able to understand, I'm drawn to them.

In a way, these photographs are about life. Or more accurately, the brevity of it. Have you ever noticed that a house, no matter how ramshackle, seems to hold together as long as someone lives in it? And how quickly even a fairly substantial house can go down when it's empty? When we moved into McLemore Cove, there was an empty house just off Cove Road that had been recently occupied and appeared reasonably sound. Within a relatively few years of emptiness it had collapsed and rotted away, leaving only a weed-covered foundation.

Life is short. I can tell you from personal experience that even a long life is short. A good reminder to, as the Bible says, "set our minds on things above."

The second edition of my book, Backroads and Byways of Georgia, originally scheduled to be released in December, will not be released until June, 2023. 

Photograph and text copyright 2022 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone

Mother Love

 "Mother" and baby, for Women's East Pavilion

In the early 1990s, two of the major hospital in Chattanooga, Erlanger and Memorial, launched a joint venture: a new women's hospital to be named Women's East Pavilion. Ria Fisher, a creative director with whom I worked on many projects over the years, had the job of creating brochures, mailing pieces, wall art, and everything else needed to publicize the start-up. 

All the work was done over a period of several weeks in my studio at 730 Cherry Street in Chattanooga (a great space -- I still miss it!) We used non-professional models, mostly people I knew from church and other connections, and set up various scenes. In this photo a "mother" and baby (no actual relation to each other) were posed as if in a hospital. A space between two panels with a light playing on the wall behind them was used to simulate a window.

My workhorse studio camera, the Mamiya RB67 with a 127mm f4.5 Mamiya-Sekor lens was on a sturdy tripod and loaded, as always, with Fujichrome transparency film. We worked with the "mother" and baby until we got a number of good shots. This was one of my favorites. In addition to being used in an elaborate brochure and other publicity, it was made into a large framed print, about three by four feet, if I remember correctly, which hung in the hospital for years.

This was the first project Ria and I did together. We both received "Addy" awards from the Chattanooga Advertising Federation for our work. 

(The models, by the way, though "non-professional," were paid for their participation.)

The web site is live! Many of my photographs are now available for order at very reasonable prices for yourself or for gifts. https://davejenkins.pixels.com/

Photograph and text copyright 2022 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone

Story Time

Young family on an Aslan carpet

Working as a commercial photographer in the Chattanooga-Northwest Georgia area, I got requests from time to time to photograph advertisements for carpets. I especially enjoyed them because they challenged my  my lighting skills. This particular one, as best I remember, was in the early 1990s and was for Aslan Carpets, which I think was based in Dalton. The assignment came to me, as often, through Michael Largent.

The models were not actually a family, but were non-related "real people" models recruited by Michael. The lighting was fairly straight-forward: two electronic flashes in umbrella reflectors. One was behind the models and to the right -- you can see the highlight on the right side (from camera position) of the man's face. The other was in front and slightly to the right of the models. Both lights were positioned to bring out the texture of the carpet.

I ran through two, ten-exposure rolls of Fuji film in my Pentax 6x7 medium-format camera. In most of the photos the little "family" was looking at the story-book. However, in one shot, the "mother" looked up at the "father" and the little girl looked up at the "mother," and that, of course, is the photograph that was chosen for the ad. 

Just another interesting day in the life of a commercial photographer.

Blog note: Very soon I will be posting a link to a web site where many of my pictures will be available for order at very reasonable prices for yourself or for gifts. Watch this space.

Photograph and text copyright 2022 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone

The Nurse Is in Pink But My Face Is Red

Emergency Room Nurse at Emory Medical Center

Michael Largent is a graphic designer and creative director who has done just about everything in the design field. Currently he's rounding out a distinguished career by teaching graphic design at a college in Chattanooga. We first met when he was working his way through college as a newspaper photographer and have been friends for nearly 50 years.. Since he became an art director in the 1980s we have worked together on many, many projects  -- he says more than 50. I won't dispute that because I wasn't counting. Also, his memory is better than mine. He remembered something I had forgotten about the  project for Emory Medical Center -- that the models in my previous three posts were not hospital employees, as I stated, but non-professional "real people" models that he recruited. The "EMT" in my previous post, for instance, was actually the youth pastor at Michael's church. My face is red!

However, it appears that the young woman in pink may have been an actual nurse at the hospital.

Changing the subject somewhat, let me distract you from my embarrassment by calling your attention to the large empty space in the upper left of this photo and all the previous photos in this series. That space is where the ad copy goes. Photographs for advertising must always be composed so there's someplace for the message to go. 

Blog note: Very soon I will be posting a link to a web site where many of my pictures will be available for order at very reasonable prices for yourself or for gifts. Watch this space.

Photograph and text copyright 2022 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone