Old House, Western Corner

PART OF A SERIES--shot not long after getting the Olympus E-20 inearly, 2002. This was my first digital camera, and it had all of fivemegapixels, but I was in awe. I still am after all these years.Comments welcome.--Lannie

I shot this house three times: February, March, and April, 2002.  The next time I went by, some months later or perhaps even the next year, there was nothing there but a field and a few trees which had been next to the house.  The grass was so perfect that one could not--apart from the trees--tell that there had ever been a house there.  I was devastated, and I could have kicked myself for not following up sooner.

 

I just did Google Street View a few minutes ago, and nothing is shown as having been built on the plot where the old house once stood:

 

[GOOGLE STREET VIEW LINK]

 

I had thought that, over ten years later, someone would likely have put up a more modern house overlooking the pasture and pond.  So far no one has--or at least not as recently as the last Google pass by that area.  In fact, one of the Google shots of the area shows it as having been planted over for timber--hardly worth a drive by.

 

--Lannie

When I Googled the address by state road numbers rather than by street names, I got a   different view of the property.  In fact, what I got was an image (made from Google's camera truck) of the property AFTER the house had come down, but BEFORE it had been allowed to grow up as a pine plantation--a "plantation" being defined as a tract devoted to one "crop," in this case pine trees.  (Before that, I can only imagine that the "one crop" grown near the old house was King Cotton.  I don't think that the house was ante-bellum, but the culture might well have been.  Slavery no longer existed during the heyday of the early twentieth century Old South, but legalized segregation and the deliberate subjugation of African-Americans had perpetuated the survival of cotton plantations which survived by what was only one step removed from the era of slave labor: largely poor black labor.  (If that sounds presumptuous to assume, consider that the majority of the population of McCormick, SC where I lived in the early 2000s was still African-American.  Yes, I know that poor whites also picked cotton, but only when they had to--and most African-Americans had to.)

 

Although the attached Google shot (made at wide angle into the sun) is not the very best, it s special nonetheless to me and perhaps to a few old timers who lived in that area all of their lives (as I certainly did not).  Even so, for the brief time (August, 2001-January, 2003) that I lived in McCormick, SC, the opportunity to purchase a digital camera (after shooting a film SLR since 1977) and to be able to go around those little towns and environs, trying to capture the Old South, was hardly meaningless.)

 

In any case, here is the shot that I recovered from Google.  As you look at it, made after the house came down, consider that the entire area has now apparently reverted to a scrubby-looking "pine plantation" for commercial purposes.

 

--Lannie

Great bit of background history.  This shot reminds me a little of Walker Evans' work in the 1930's south.

An excellent documentary shot, and a superb historic overview of the area,  Landrum!

All the best to you in 2013,
Neil

I agree with Neil, Lannie. I also identify with your story re your first Digital Camera. I recall my Dad getting his first Digital. I think had about the same number of MegaPixels. I was in awe of the images he was getting, and I'll never get over his excitement. I have many images taken on film that I have an attachment to, places or building that I have visited, and when you go back, all is changed. I find it rather sad. While change is always inevitable, I find it rather comforting when things that have had special meaning to me, remain barely unchanged when I have gone back to visit. I like the processing in this image, suits the Old House well.

Warm regards Lannie, ;-) Gail

Thank you, Martin, Neil, and Gail.  I posted these primarily for myself--even the historical note, lest I forget.  I am glad that what I had to say resonated with each of you in some way.

 

Yes, Gail, it is sad to see things change.  What struck me about this is how totally the area has changed in ten years.  A tree farm now covers all of that beautiful pasture.

 

--Lannie

This one splits into zones.  Doesn't work for me.  perhaps some shadow recovery.  best, j

 

p.s.:  perhaps letting the bright bit blow out???

 

p.p.s.:  my seven for the best one and five for this one leave their averages equal.  glad to be swimming against the current, but wish i could swim a little harder!

Thanks, Jamie.  I haven't touched these in years.  I'll have to go into my other hard drives to see about getting the original files.  That's the nice thing about keeping originals.  Later one will find the need to do them differently, in almost every case.

 

--Lannie

Hi Lannie,

  Wonderful b/w image's with great history to boot.  Thanks for sharing.  Happy New Year!!! Take care, Patsy

I seem to remember commenting on this old relic or one very much like it. You really have a penchant for these abandoned derelicts and you dignify them with your photography. It seems that only the façade remains since I can see a background tree through that missing door panel. I guess that's the fate that awaits all of us, the holes start to show in our previously solid structure, the stairs decay and disappear and the shingles fall from our roofs. But I take solace in the fact that age has provided a splendid subject for your photographic talents. All the best to you in the coming year, Lannie, Best regards, Jack

always

 

and the third.  best, jamie