01-16-13 Prairie Home

This is the third photo of the same abandoned farmstead I have posted recently. And having posted this today, I am abandoning the abandoned farm theme. At least for a while.

01-13-12 Ghosts

This is a closer view of one of the two buildings pictured yesterday. This photo was taken right around sunrise and it occurs to me that this old building has lived to see a lot more sunrises than I have.I asked my first year photography students recently to tell me what they thought a photographer was and Bjorn, a person whom I think has great promise, suggested that a photographer is a person who engages in time travel - that photographers have the power to take those who view their photos to a particular place in time. It was an astounding and unexpected answer. And of course, Bjorn's answer has me thinking. . . .I realize, for example, that while my photos allow me to do my own kind of time travel in that they help me remember things that I have seen and experienced, they also have the power to do the same for the viewer. You may have never been to this particular place, but it may remind you of similar places.Photos like this may have another emotive power, too. It's not hard to see the ghosts of those who lived at this farmstead. I look at this scene and can see the farmer's wife stepping through the door to check for fresh eggs, I can see the children playing in the tall, prairie grass and I can see the farmer working the distant field with his simple tractor.To me, this way of life exists in my imagination as I am a "city boy." But to many South Dakotans, this life still exists. It is as real and predictable as the the South Dakota sunrise.Canon 1DII 1/6s f/9.0 ISO100 17mm

Shattered

Here's another photo from what I am now calling my "Rural Decay" series. It's the little Metro van pictured yesterday. If you missed yesterday's post, check it out here.I've been doing a little research and have learned that the Metro was produced by International Harvester from 1938 to 1975, which is a pretty long run for a vehicle. It is a "step" van, and was designed for delivery of things like milk and bread. The milkman who used to deliver milk to our neighborhood drove a little van and I'm wondering if it wasn't an IH Metro. I have fond memories of doorstep delivery of fresh milk and the man named Bob who delivered it.This blue and white metro has a license plate that dates back to the 70s, though I'm guessing the van was manufactured a decade or so before that. This little van represents an interesting piece of history and I wonder how it ended up on a farm north of Watertown? Was it "put out to pasture," so to speak? Did it have a function on this farm? Or was it simply abandoned here by some city dweller who no longer wanted it?You can invent your own story. . .