Continuation of a Long Term Project (series)

A while ago I decided I want to shoot Pennsylvania Coal Country- towns, villages, and scenes from aspects of our state's long history with coal. Most of the old towns and burgs have seen better days, and many really appear to be frozen in time. I had a few frames left on a roll of 35mm Ferrania P30. It's a somewhat quirky film stock and a lot of the lab-processed stuff Ive shot with this is super gritty and often super dark... but an admin from the P30 F B group offered too develop my film and he just sent the scans today. I happened to be passing by this town recently and popped in to finish off the roll.

 

Please critique away, on this series of shots from this burned-out burg of Mahanoy City. Being something of a "car guy" most of my shots here reflect that but I also love the neighborhood and street scenes, the buildings of these old towns. The petiole are fascinating too of course but that's something I need to figure out how to do- approach total strangers and ask to photograph them! More than just a little awkward considering most of interesting-looking people I saw here were teenagers!

 

Note that these were shot on my Voigtlander R3m rangefinder camera in 35mm. The lens was my Voigtlander 40mm f1.4 Nokton Classic (multi coated). There's some cropping here, but mostly, all I did was auto-correct the light on these

 

 

 

the phoot below is interesting in many ways. Not the poster on the utility pole in the background, of one of the town's many "heroes", somebody who gave his life for our country. SO many of these little towns have these posters on nearly every pole- a testament to the strength of these humble people. Also here is the railroad bridge upon which is inscribed the log of the former Reading Railroad- kind of hard to make out here, however.

 

 

 

lots of "orthodox" religion stuff going on up in this region, which means plenty of the "onion dome" church architecture on hand. Most are somewhat "richer" or more upscale looking than this old neighborhood chapel tho...

 

 

 

At this point I ran out of film, and took a handful of shots with my phone (at least some of which I posted in "Street & Documentary" forum section in my ongoing Pennsylvania Coal Country" thread. Mahanoy City is endlessly photogenic tho, must return with all my cameras and more FILM.

Edited November 14, 2021 by Ricochetrider

The more photos I see of your project the more the words zeit...geist come to mind. Zeitgeist on a slow motion train. impeded locomotion....... Edited November 15, 2021 by inoneeye

The strong contrast in the images portrays the poor condition of that city really well IMO. The last shot has a bit of magic, it's very well composed and exposed, all the features in it seem to compliment each other as well.

I see the story and feel that it's effectively conveyed to us, BUT I feel like several of the shots are not quite in focus, or the lens quality is poor. For this type of shooting, I'd try to get everything in the image in focus. (Maybe it's the lens.)

I see the story and feel that it's effectively conveyed to us, BUT I feel like several of the shots are not quite in focus, or the lens quality is poor. For this type of shooting, I'd try to get everything in the image in focus. (Maybe it's the lens.)

 

Well… the lens is a Voigtlander 40mm f1.4 Nokton Classic multi coated lens… I doubt very seriously it’s the problem- more likely it’s my eyesight.

Then again I probably wasn’t shooting above f/4 or so? Could it be the scans?

Nice project and I think you made a good choice choosing b/w. It seems to capture sort of the depressiveness If that's the right term? but the feeling of places that have lost their once prominent place. And sort of echos of the past here in the present, but with a dubious future.

Thanks for your thoughts & comments everybody!

Ehhhhh! I dunno Ric. B/W = good choice. Aside from that. I'm definitely no expert in these matters and I'm sure you as well as others on this forum are far more qualified than I to comment, but I think adding a little grain to give them a grittier appearance might not hurt. Thinking of some those old dustbowl pics from the 30s....Izzy