.....was.....

If you are interested to find out how .....was.....started, click here.

There has been a stairway to nowhere near where I live for as long as I lived here.  It was just plunked out in the grass, nothing near it.  I decided to photograph it.  And guess what?  It is gone.  I finally decide to bring my camera with me and the Stairway to Nowhere is Gone.  It was still around as late as the end of August.  Wonder where it went?  This was in the same field.  What's the story with this one?  And where did the Stairway go?  It was concrete stairs (about 8-10 steps) and an iron handrail.

Lackawanna County
Pennsylvania

.....was.....

Another Tuesday already...hard to believe how fast time flies.  I thought for sure I would finally get to a jewelry post in between ".....was....." posts, but that didn't happen.  C'est la vie!

If you want to find out how ".....was....." started, click here.
So as I said last week, I have been mulling this over for a very long time, but didn't have enough photos for a strong start.  I was hoping for a "if you start it, the photos will come."  Within seconds after hitting the "publish" button last week, I found out a service person was coming, someone I didn't want to talk with for various reasons.  I was pissed that I either had to be home with him in an awkward angry silence or abandon my plans to bead in the workshop all day and leave while he worked.  I opted to leave.  Why be with someone when I can be alone?
I grabbed the camera, drove to the reservoir, parked the car, and hit the woods, alone for the first time in forever.  I used to cherish being alone in the woods.  It was my favorite, FAVORITE thing to do.  But kids, safety, blah blah blah has prevented me from doing it for the past 16 years.   I felt so alive and so much like ME.  I reconnected with my confidence and my strength and my thoughts and my power.  I did contemplate briefly how to fend off a bear, but beyond that, it was completely worry free and cleansing.

I knew this old bridge was here but never photographed it.  Leaving the house and going in the woods, heading in this direction, I made the series photo happen, rather than leaving it up to fate, like I have been doing with these photos.

Bridge over Reservoir
Lackawanna County
Pennsylvania

 So what kind of cars drove over this bridge?  And where were they headed?  Stories.  

I hope to be either less verbal or non-verbal throughout the series and hear your stories instead.

.....was.....

I have been mulling this over for a long time.
Photos of abandoned structures.
I know it is not a new idea, but I cannot stop thinking about it.
I am not a photographer, but I do like taking pictures on occasion.  I began taking pictures of abandoned structures a year or so ago.  The idea came to me when we were on our way to Trout Lake in Upstate New York in July 2013.  We were driving for a few hours when I saw a sign.  It was on a tall rusty post, about 15 feet or more in the air.  The sign was in rough shape and said "Diner".  There was nothing around it ~ no structure that used to be a diner.  Just a cement slab with weeds and bushes growing through it.  But the sign remained.
The structures themselves are not hard to find at all, but the photography is presenting a problem.  I will not trespass, so I am snapping from the road.  And the Bird Man will not pull over when we drive.  He will slow down when there is no one behind us, but that is it.  I have to re-examine this situation.

I meant to start these posts September 2013, but I didn't have enough photos at that time.  I still don't.  I have a lot of blur and streaks and partials with the Bird Man's nose in the photo.  But I decided not to wait anymore.  Maybe once I start putting it up here, the photos will be easier to come by.  Maybe not.  But not starting something I want to start is getting old, as am I.  I tend to wait for the perfect time to start something.  THERE IS NO PERFECT TIME.  Ever.  There is only the desire and the now.

This has become such an agonizing-long-time-talking-about-it process that my girls now yell every 10 minutes from the back seat, "ABANDONED STRUCTURE!!!"  They once sent me into the deli to get hoagies and the three of them took my camera and took pictures of abandoned lawn chairs, mailboxes, weeds, house window, deli sign, styrofoam coffee cup, crooked street sign, and of course one of themselves.  They mock me so.....

When the photos are posted,  I would love to hear from you...what story do you think accompanies the structure?  What went on with it when it was full of life and newness?  What caused its demise?
What do you see when you look at it?  Stories.  Everything has a story.  It will be fun to make up a few of our own.

And now....was....

Route 23
Sussex County
New Jersey