From the Archives of 2007—5
March 28, 2021
The year 2007 was one of traveling around Ohio. Here are some photographs of the built environment in this state, plus two animals.
1 In September 2007 my friend Britt and I drove to the Flats in Cleveland to see what we could see. The old buildings were most interesting to me. I’d guess that this empty space was originally some kind of factory. I wonder if it was renovated for another use. Much of the Flats is now converted to entertainment venues, and I wonder what impact the pandemic is having on their viability.
2 Brave sumac!
3 The structure on the right is the Detroit–Superior Bridge.
4 This window within a window is in Wellington, the next town south of Oberlin.
5 So is this oddly cut-in doorway. A recent trip showed this spot spiffed up. You know which look I prefer.
6 A residential backyard in Darby Township, outside Columbus, is home to this small greenhouse.
7 Some deftly placed wire is holding in the headlight on an old truck in Wellington.
8 With my back to the old truck, I photographed this wall of an even older building, recently destroyed by fire.
9 A utility pole does duty as a bulletin board in the Flats.
10 A kitty guards a porch in Darby Township.
11 As evening falls on the ferry to Port Clinton from South Bass Island, the sun picks out the edges of a car and lights the backdrop for a gull.
Romancing Reality 
The circular visions in #7 and 8 are both eye-grabbers. And how about that staple farm on the utility pole in #9 (which includes a non-circular ellipse)? Your last picture offers a novel combination of a gull and a mostly dark car delineated by a light contour along the top; it’s quite effective.
Not having heard of The Flats, I followed your link and then hopped to a couple of other relevant ones. To pursue your question about how things are coming along there at this stage in the pandemic, I checked out one venue, the Music Box supper club, and found that it’s set to reopen on May 2nd, with various restrictions in place: http://www.musicboxcle.com/reopening/
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March 28, 2021 at 10:34 PM
“Staple farm”: I like that! I confess that I moved the gull. She was more toward the middle of the frame, but I needed her to move over for a better composition. (I don’t usually do this sort of thing.) Thanks for the update on the Music Box in the Flats.
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March 29, 2021 at 1:23 PM
What an intriguing post this is! To me it feels as if I’ve met a number of different characters: that brave tree, the people of practical solutions (the odd doorway and the wire on the headlight, the angry cat, and not the least, the traces of an entire community of people sharing messages among themselves. And then the final one, ah, that is SO poetic! The final one feels like a deep, calm sigh after a lot of struggle, like when evening releases you after a day of hard work.
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March 29, 2021 at 4:09 AM
Thank you for your comments, Gunilla, so beautifully written. I’m glad the last photo was calming; we could all use some of that these days.
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March 29, 2021 at 1:29 PM
We have all seen a poll used to staple announcements, but until you got close up to it and excluded surrounding information did it take on an artistry. The light against the car and seagull was also beautiful.
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March 29, 2021 at 7:25 AM
Thanks, Lynda. The light in the last photograph is something I don’t often see, being mainly a morning photographer. Glad you like it.
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March 29, 2021 at 1:32 PM
Good pictures, but you can always get to me with cats >>> and the gull picture is simply superb – and getting over towards the surreal. 🙂
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March 30, 2021 at 5:26 AM
Thank you, Adrian. I thought about you while choosing the cat photo.
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March 30, 2021 at 8:34 AM
This is a wonderful collection, Linda. I really like the colors and textures of the odd doorway, the greenhouse, and the burned out brick wall. The car and gull image is superb; I really like that smooth thin blue line on the car; light vs shadow contrast and the warm vs cool color contrast too!
It has been such a long time since we’ve been out to the islands; we are looking forward to a couple of day trips to the lake this spring before it gets too crowded though.
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April 1, 2021 at 8:35 PM
Thank you, Mic. I’m so pleased you like these. When I look at the car and gull photo, I almost can’t believe I took it. How did I get the exposure right? How did I happen to be in the right spot at the right time? Sometimes you’re just lucky I guess. Enjoy your day trips! I’ll be looking for some consequences on your blog.
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April 1, 2021 at 9:02 PM
Love to see those red brick walls! The headlight is my kinda image.
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April 2, 2021 at 2:03 PM
Thank you, Joe. I plan a trip to red-brick-wall terrain tomorrow morning. Will see what I can add to my collection. It’s probably too much to ask for another photogenic headlight. But you never know, do you.
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April 2, 2021 at 2:28 PM
How could I get so far behind? I’m sorry! And this is a refreshing change from so many flowers that I’m seeing in other people’s blogs, not to mention my own. 😉 That first photo is beautiful – one longs to be in that space. You showed it well. The second brings back fond memories of the same phenomenon in and around NYC. How I used to love seeing that! To see #3 after #2 is to admire the sumac even more, and your eye, too. That’s a great juxtaposition. #4 is nicely done, the way the light hits the wall, and the next one once again brings back memories of oddly-shaped doorways. Wow, that one is a real gem! Love it! I envy you that old greenhouse…and the headlight! That’s one of my favorites here. The close cropping really makes it powerful. I’d like to see a print of that. The circle in the fire-damaged wall is so strange, it really makes me wonder. That too is a terrific find. I like seeing the cat here very much – he just seems to go with the rest. Altogether, the series never retreats into empty nostalgia, though it’s full of longing for a less slick reality. And that’s because of that intelligent eye working behind the camera. 🙂
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April 23, 2021 at 12:28 PM
Oh, please don’t apologize, Lynn. I’d just have to send it back 10 fold. It’s hard not to photograph flowers when you see them, especially the spring ephemerals, which offer us such a short window of time. In the ’70s, when I took a photograph of grass growing through pavement, I thought, “the persistence of life,” and those words stick with me even now when I see plants growing on or in or through the built environment. I’m glad you singled out the headlight; it’s one of my all-time favorites. I so wish I knew what that circle in the brick wall is or was. The less-slick reality may have less to do with my eye than with the appearance of the outside world. Reality is less slick all over rural and inner-city America and even Europe. See the comments on my post about New London, Ohio (https://lindagrashoff.wordpress.com/2021/04/11/ambivalence-in-downtown-new-london/).
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April 23, 2021 at 5:18 PM
I appreciate what you say about reality not being particularly slick but still, it’s what you find there, the way you approach it, the way you frame and light a shot, etc. I’ll go look at those comments.
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April 23, 2021 at 9:07 PM
Thank you, Lynn. Your encouragement is motivating.
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April 24, 2021 at 9:19 PM