COME GATHER ROUND CHILDREN

Dramatic and compelling.

Thanks. I'm thinking this may be the results of No Child Left Behind. lol

Very haunting image. I could imagine that it's an still shot from an Stephen King movie

I love the subject, I love the strong backlight and I think the straight compo with tilt suits the subject very well....my only little concern (by little I mean that I don't take myself so seriously as you know, but in the other hand it's part of the respect I owe you to be frank) is the lack of sharpness obviously due to camera shake (if I am wrong just ignore my comment)....I am not obsessed by sharpness but I think specifically for this kind of picture we are in the middle of the river....either assume the blurr and use it to enhance the mood (wether people like or not is another debate) or go toward sharpness control....here I have the feeling that we are in the middle (I have an image with the same problem in my street folder so I reallly make this comment respectfully)....

I like it, All things in the right place!! Where is the place? Saluti, Giovanni

I fully concur with Paul - this is dramatic and compelling. I come away from it wondering if someone, somewhere might see this and say, 'Oh yeah, I remember when I was in that room and . . .

 

Very good picture.

It is a strong story of the past.The light and shadows, the tilted frame and furnitures which looks like falling backward ,are compatible to the story of this neglected place. Children were there once, where are they nowadays? Good title and unknown end.... Just a memory.Very nice, Dave.

I have to tell you that I heard and felt ghosts here. Not literally, but I'll admit to being pretty scared. I was trespassing, and the building was a shambles and quite dark. If it had not been for the lone window that was not covered in plywood, I would not have descended the stairway to get here. I regret that I did not have the time, the equipment or the guts to explore the rest of this fascinating relic.

Not to worry. You are absolutely correct that blur is a problem. Because I had to squeeze through a small opening in a boarded up door, and would have had to make a trek back to the car to get the abandoned tripod, I elected to do what I could with what I had. This was taken by holding the camera against the door frame, but, as you can see, that did not solve all my problems. I know that some will not like it, and I don't blame them. I'm still reasonably pleased with the image, but you know how much I enjoy photographing such scenes.

This is an abandoned schoolhouse in an abandoned town called, "Vananda," in the state of Montana. You have to work at it to find yourself way out here on highway 12.

Yes, it's pretty amazing to look at this three story brick structure and think that at some point there were enough people with enough kids and money for such a school. Today this structure stands pretty much alone and hardly any signs of the community which must have been there. And the kids......Scattered to the winds I reckon.

Yes, I love your thought that I might hear from one of the what must have been many who passed through those halls. It does happen occasionally. I once posted a picture on Flickr of a lonesome main street in Lamont, Oklahoma, and heard from a gentleman that was born and raised there. He was quite a writer and regaled me with tales of growing up in what is now almost a relic. Quite coincidentally, when I started posting images of this area, he was pretty intimately familiar with it, as he road his bicycle coast to coast, and took highway 12, where this is and Ingomar and Lemmons, South Dakota is and some others. He had some great stories of his passage through the area and a remarkable memory. That's what is so awesome about the internet. Imagine a guy born and raised in Oklahoma, now living in New York, and having passed the same back roads, who could add color and flavor to my own experiences.

well I would always prefer an image with little flaw than no image at all...and I like the scene very much as well...so I am still very happy you took the shot and present it....I had the same concern last year shooting a construction worker with a yellow helmet inside the works....just like you say I felt the same, better an image with a little blurr than no image at all...those damned tripods are so heavy and bulky...:-)

i am tempted to go off on a rant about the terrible state of education...the dark suits this image, and the light coming through the windows, are like spots on the desks. the ghosts must be those of teachers who were allowed to teach children something other than how to "bubble in" standardized tests.

I knew that you would rather see something as long as it was not too terrible.

No rants today. The only rants I'm accepting are ones about Sarah the Barracuda. Oh, okay, I might accept a few anti McCain ones. Nothing else. It's Friday. :) Thanks for the visit and glad you guys are safe and sound.

thanks David. i took my girls up to visit my uncle in Knoxville. my macho husband stayed home to keep the house from blowing away. it didn't blow away, so i guess he did a good job. no damage to our property. the little trip worked well for me. i got a road trip, and never had to go without electricity. i even found a few fun places to photograph, although i didn't get to explore like i would like with the kids in tow. if another hurricane blows this way, i won't hesitate to take another "evacucation"

Good picture. I see a lot of good pictures here; most of them are really good. Yours was one of the few that made me stop; one of the very few that made me think.

 

Don't change a thing about this one; I have no idea how it can be improved. You'll have to get a more constructive critique from someone else. Good job. J.

Thank you so much. I once remarked to one of my favorite photographers on Pnet that I found one of his particular images very much to my taste, but I could not explain why. He, being a very learned fellow, proceeded to give my quite a lecture which I think in essence was that we do not have to analyze and dissect every piece of art and that they can have a visceral appeal without the need to define every aspect. And, of course, he was right. I'm not saying we should just always ignore what makes something good or appealing, just that it's okay to simply like it for what it is.

When you have to pass through metal detectors in order to enter certain schools and learn about kids shooting each other on school grounds, then this picture is not that far off from representing the reality of the school experience.

A valid point, but I prefer to think of this place as it would have been when I was of an age to attend it. Life was so much simpler. Teachers were good role models who we respected, we never worried about anything more threatening than a playground bully, and we could walk to school with no fear of being molested. Now that's a sweet memory that I fear will not be the experience of my grandchildren.

Uh-hum. We meant no ONE child left behind. We believe in equal opportunity, here.

 

 

Thank you, dear education president. When W was governor of Texas and while I lived in that fair state, I was struck with how many, many children were actually left behind. And now living in the so-called liberal Northeast, I get to deal with prisoners who are recipients of non-existent educational opportunities offered by truly saints-in-making public schools who break their back, their bank account, and their hearts trying to prop up what can't be propped up in inner-city schools. I suppose, it's much more important to spend our money on prisons and foreign wars. That'll keep the populace safe. That'll make it all okay.

 

 

My heart grieves because the future seems to be drying up, crumbling from within. What're we left with? Fear-mongers, narcissists, and barracudas. Who wouldn't play hooky? Okay, whew, I feel better.

 

 

This reminds me of the Gone book. A real jewel of shot. I like how you constantly hit gold while panning in the dirt.

either the kids didn't like their teacher, or it was a science project going wrong. In a way this is a fantastic picture: the haphazardly placed desks; the single window letting in light; the debris upholstered floor. This had to be a really old school. Do you think V8 existed in their time? Cheers, Micheal

I love this, David. As you know, it's a genre I enjoy exploring myself, and you've done a great job with this one. The backlighting from the window is handled artfully; the relative lack of color adds to the chilling sense I get from this.

This picture didn't strike me narratively. I just had a positive visceral reaction to the light sublimely illuminating rubble. I don't immediately experience it as a political or social statement, although context would influence that.

 

I like the energy and the atmosphere you capture here. To me, it's proof that any subject can make a "beautiful" photograph. I see beauty here.