Does it seem like I’m always posting photos of urban blight? I guess it’s because I'm a sucker for vintage design and forgotten, unloveable, semi-tragic old junk. But I’m a lousy photographer. My friend Kelso captures the kind of pictures I only wish I could. He lets me steal photos to use on this blog and he’s responsible for the portraits on Skeledog. His documentary images strike me as perfectly “southern,” but like Eggleston, he could be in Japan or Sweden and still get this spooky, wonder-filled richness out of ordinary scenes. Check out his more of his photos here.
What's blighted about either of these? I see a nice sidewalk in front of an apparently well-maintained house in the first one, and a solitary piece of litter in front of a blurry backdrop - though you can tell all the windows in the nearest building are there, and the parking lot's in good shape. Is it urban blight, or just urban?
Posted by: atlin83 | April 06, 2010 at 07:31 PM
hmm, good point. "blight" doesn't really apply to these 2 images. A better word might be "desolate."
Posted by: Hannah Palmer | April 07, 2010 at 08:36 AM