SECOND FLOOR ROLLAWAY NO MORE

An abandoned house way out nowhere in Montana. This homestead

provided a number of photos.

I find this shot extremely intersting. Good work. Two points that I'm picking up on are the crop on the left hand side at the window frame. To me, the window frame looks a bit cut off. Including about 6 inches more to the left would be for the better in my opinion. ALso, I'm not sure if you've blurred the floor right under the left window, but the loss of texture on the floor itself is unusual. Given the abandoned nature of the house, one would expect to see more rough texture but this looks unnaturally smooth. Not sure if you did this intentionally. Otherwise, fine work. These are two minor critiques.

 

Jamie - www.thecaminus.com

Thank you very much for taking the time to comment. I appreciate your comments. As to the crop, I was standing in the corner of the room with no way to back up, and my lens was as wide as it could go. Perhaps if I had hunched down a bit with a lower angle, it might have given me a bit more on the left. I really did not want to lose the pile of newpapers on the right, nor crop too close to the springs.

 

The blown out parts of the floor are snow. The windows had no glass or at least most of them did not. Thus, the snow had blown in, and that is what you see on the floor.

this is a scene of a complete abandonment. The brightness of the scene, the texture of the walls and the bed frame make the image really powerful. I don't like the whatever in the right corner behind the bed - I find it kind of distracting the otherwise empty and featureless floor. Then there is the lens distortion, which is so strongly seen in the tiltedness of the LH window. On one hand it's not a big deal, considering the scene; on the other hand, I kinda wish the window were straight. Cheers, Micheal

 

I can't disagree too much, except I think the pile of newpapers in the lower right is kind of essential to what I was trying to portray. But I do see your point. I had a lot of trouble with the snow on the floor being blown out. I did the best I could, but I'll give you the original to see what you think.

I haven't been checking out portfolios lately so it's a pleasure to start with yours. David. I think this is a fine picture which works both as historical record and striking composition. The perspective kind of reminds me of Van Gough's painting of his bedroom (though his bedroom was not quite as sparse, of course). This is both eccentric and beautifully composed with a dynamic internal balance.

IMV8O the B&W image is many times better. I don't find the brightness of the floor (blown-out snow) distracting. Actually, I think it's adding to the image strongly. Maybe if the pile of the newspapers in the RH corner were clearly distinguishable as newspapers, it would be OK. The way you treated the photo it could be anything. BTW, since you're going on the cross-country tour, are you going to take a picture of the Oval Office with the appopriate post-processing? Cheers, Micheal

Yeah, I do wish the pile of papers were more distiguishable, but I liked the effect on the majority of the image, so stuck with it.

 

I don't think I am going to get much of the east coast on my trip. Mainly the Mississippi and up into Michigan, and back down to my home state of Iowa, then Yellowstone. For the first time in my life I intend to just get up each day and go wherever I feel like going. No goals and six weeks time limit. Lots of pics I hope.

WOW!!!

 

Ok... I have to say more than wow!! This is quintessential David Meyer. Stark, and abandoned, and left behind, and bleak, yes? very bleak. This is one of the most thought provoking shots of nothingness that you have ever taken ( In my opinion). I love your treatment of the image. That B&W and the high key and the grainy treatment make for an original David Meyer photo. You are the coolest old curmudgeon I know.

 

Oh, did I mention.

this is a great shot.

Thanks for the nice comments on the image, and for recognizing that I am, indeed, an old curmudgeon. I take both as high praise. Keep on pumping out those wild images.

David, are you coming all the way down the Mississippi? if you make it down to Louisiana, let me know & maybe we could get together. great photo. there is something very appealing about this even though it is obviously abandoned. i get the feeling that the people who were here just dissappeared rather than actually left. i think it is because of the light in the windows. it gives this an ethereal feeling to me.

Thanks for the compliments on the photo. I'm really fond of this one too.

 

Also thanks so much for the offer. I would dearly love to have a guide of your obvious abilities to help me if I get to your neck of the woods. It's really amusing how this trip is developing. I have been around this country a fair bit over the years, but have not done an extended road trip (three or more weeks) since I was considerably younger. When I started planning this trip, I naively thought I was going coast to coast. And, then, when I started thinking about how I was meandering all over the place, I came to the sudden realization that what I need is two or three years. At this point I don't expect to get much east of the Mississippi, but maybe cross back and forth a few times as I go from south to north. Well, anyway, what I'm saying is that I don't have enough time or money to do a quarter of what I want to do. Are you close to the Arkansas border?

David, i am down in the southern part of the state, but do need to go to the northern part for business sometime in the next few weeks. i have a few farms around Shreveport i intend to visit, but have not set up any appointments yet. i may also go to a few around Monroe this year. i was up that way a few weeks ago with my boss, and saw a few places i wanted to stop, but he was driving and we were up there and back in one day. i guess what i'm trying to say is, if you have an idea when you might be around that part of the state, i will try to be there at the same time. i don't know that i would have anything to show you with my "obvious abilities". i am just feeling my way along, but you and i are often drawn to similar subjects, and i think it would be great fun to explore together for a day. one of the best things about Pnet is meeting kindred spirits.

Aside from the peeling wallpaper and the broken glass, this doesn't look that old or deteriorated. I have to wonder why it was abandoned. Did the local economy just dry up and blow away, and take the residents with it?

 

The snow makes the image powerfully effective for me. I have a sense of shelter, no matter how humble it may be, protecting the residents against the cold. And this doesn't.

 

When are you leaving? Will you be taking a laptop to post images as you travel?

I really appreciate your offer. I won't be that way until about the twentieth of June. Let's just leave the possibility open.

The only thing I know for sure is we are leaving home on June 10th. I have no itenerary, but will work my way east to the Mississippi by way of Arizona New Mexico, Oklahoma and Arkansas. After getting to the Mississippi, we will meander northward criss crossing the river a few times, and I intend to be in Des Moines, on June 29th, which is my only set time. My mother and sister live there still, so we will rest and settle for a week or so, and then move on. May go up to the Great Lakes and then head west again to Yellowstone and elsewhere. I should be back home by August first. I've dreamed about doing some cross country traveling on old highways and byways for a long long time, and this is my chance. I will have my laptop, and may post, but it is hard to do any PS work on the laptop, as the screen is not very good, so you cannot be sure of what you are getting. Also don't know how much availability I will have for internet, as I will not be hanging out in big cities. I'd love to do the eastern seaboard, but don't think I can manage it this time out.

 

As for your question about the house, I don't really know. It wasn't as ramshackle as many I've been in, but the out buildings were all deteriorated. I would imagine it was cattle country, and they might have been too small potatoes to weather the economic storms. It's my belief that small farms, small business and middle class working folk all over are on the economic edge most of the time. Just one little negative event, and they are not viable anymore and lose most everything they worked so hard for.

David, Notice the time at which I'm writing and you'll understand why I'll be brief, but know that I'm taking time tomorrow to spend extensive time revisiting your portfolio! I think you know my photographic interests well enough by now that it won't surprise you that I love this one. Funny that you found yourself explaining why the floor doesn't show wear (because it is partially covered with snow...while I had a sepia toned shot critiqued in which my friend brought to my attention that it (the toning) made the snow on the sculpture look "dirty" (because it wasn't snow, but reflection on a highly polished piece of granite). As to the paper on the floor...obvious to me that it was some type of "debris" that you wouldn't be surprised to see in an abandoned building...didn't really matter that it was indistinguishable. Talk to you tomorrow....my best, John

...pondering if my comments made any sense at all...I think i'll get some sleep... :)

Thanks. Your praise is much appreciated. I have seen much of your work, and obviously enjoy it very much, as I look at all of your posts. As I stated above, this is processed quite a bit, but it was more expressive to me than a "straight" shot. And, of course, some folks just don't like obviously processed image. But that's okay. I like praise as much as anybody, but I'm too old to worry about making stuff to please everybody. I sure hope you are asleep as I write this.

Ah, it's snow! That makes perfect sense to me now, I really appreciate the image more knowing that it's a natural "blur." Again, good work.

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Hi David...a superb photo with very good composition and light coming from the windows...I thank you for puttting the coloured version as well...I like the BW but I have a slight preference for the colour one since the floor colour matches the window frame so nicely and the black bed skeleton really pops out on the beige and snow...well done...yes your Montana serie really is good and I think you really took the opportunity to move further deep as a photographer...

Thanks once again for your commentary. I'm not surprised that you prefer the straight version, and there is a lot to be said for that. I just wanted to try and bring out the sense of sadness and the poignancy of the scene for me. I felt the black and white did that better. Perhaps I should not have processed it so much, but it was in the attempt to bring out more than what the eye saw. Sometimes that doesn't work out.

Don't get me wrong David...I like the BW version as well...it's just that I have a preference for the coloured...the BW lends into sadness while the color version leave more space for optimism I guess...

I need to explain a bit why I rated this picture a 7/7, because, quite frankly, I have never rated your picture a 7. Now, this does not mean I do not find your work compelling, just that when I have looked at your pictures, rating them for "aesthetics" or 'originality" appears a banal excercise, because your purpose is different from that of most photographers here. I'll give you an example. If you put Michaelangelo's David or Moses side by side with, oh, Rodin's The Thinker or Flaubert, and asked the raters here to rate these images, no doubt David receives almost perfect ratings. Some viewers would comment on The Thinker's physical presence, but a vast majority would rate it low because it looks "unfinished", especially if they are sculptors themselves. Therefore, most sculptors would look at POLISH as the defining trait in judging the quality of an image.

 

For that reason, pictures like yours which are neither excercises in tonal and textural obsession, nor quick, artistic sketches like the likes of Jack McRitchie, suffer at a site that EXPECTS you to darken the edges of the print, to add elements to make the image more visually compelling, and to photoshop an image until it loses its innate character and becomes an empty hulk of oversaturated colors, burned and dodged to oblivion, and wearing bandages from that ordeal. Then, you will have a chorus of "fantastic", "very beautiful" "pefect", and "excellent". I have seen people photoshop the eyes and lips out of people, or put human eyes on a monkey, or scar up a human face so viciously as to make one question their sanity. This is done, IMO, not out of any malicious intent, but out of a desire to keep up with the Joneses, or should I say, Sergeis or Olegs.

 

Your interest, on the other hand--while I'm not suggesting that you completely eschew aesthetic appeal--appears to be the documentation of the REALITY of the thing. The window is not just an opening for light. The bed is not just a prop to draw the eye into the picture, and the walls are not just empty surfaces to be burned and dodged until the shine and shadows are gone. No, in your hands, the window is an opening to the world. The bed tells a story of a person who once was here, and poses a question of where he is now. The walls represent grease, grime, fingerprints, food stains, perhaps a little sweat and blood. The floor, dilapidated and empty, represent the ground that held this person, the floor he called his home, his castle, his terra. Like the Swedes in Abba sang in "The Winner Takes it All", "I figured it'd make sense/building me a fence/building me a home/thinking I'd be strong there/but I was a fool/playing by the rules."

 

These stories which this image evokes, and these questions that they ask, is what is compelling, and ultimately satisfying about this image, and the reason I paid it the ultimate compliment. Congratulations.