Election Day

I was looking for a way to cover election day a little differently. In Philadelphia we have these great blue tarp like voting booths and I thought a great way to document the day would be by visiting as many polling places as humanly possible in the 13 hours the polls were open in Pennsylvania. I probably hit about 50 and photographed 26. Here's one, but follow the link for the rest.

http://www.mimages.com/polls/

1600 update

Here is a link to a working portfolio of the project. I would love your feedback.

http://www.mimages.com/1600Penn/

That's It

Well, I'm home. There are still several 1600's I have to re-photograph, but about half I can do in a day and the other half I'm hoping to string together a few days maybe next month. Here are some totals:

• 11,001 miles
• 34 days
• 30 states
• 22 1600 Pennsylvania St/Ave

Thanks everyone for reading and commenting. I'll still keep this blog up and running and use it to update the rest of the 1600 and future projects. I have a couple of ideas in the works that are much closer to home.

1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Tyrone, PA

The last one of the trip. Like these last several, it was a return visit and not quite as exciting, but good to photograph it none the less. This is probably the busiest of the 1600's. It's a paper plant and takes up several blocks, but the view from the street is somewhat limited. I really liked this composition from before and I think it looks great in color.

1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Irwin, PA

Wow, what a difference 12 miles make. After my experience with the woman in West Mifflin, I was a little rattled as I arrived to the house in Irwin. After 5 weeks on the road I’m tired and another encounter like the one earlier in the day would have just sent me packing. Talk about a 180. After setting up, the homeowner came out an introduced himself and we chatted for a bit. He was interested in the project and my trip, which was a huge relief. Then after about 25 minutes he came back out and handed me a small pamphlet out Jesus and a $20 bill insisting I take it to help me out with gas or food. I repeatedly tried to give it back, but at some point you have to simply accept a stranger’s generosity. I gave him a Polaroid and thanked him. Two houses in two days and two very different experiences.

View from the room

Econo Lodge, Altoona, PA

The last one! I’ll be home tomorrow after almost 5 weeks and 11,000 miles.

1600 Pennsylvania Ave, West Mifflin, PA

Wait, where's the picture? No Polaroid you ask? Well... I got there at about 2pm. I had no intention of photographing the house until later this evening. Upon seeing me, the woman who owns the house asked me f I needed help and I politely introduced myself and told her about my project. She was not impressed and went on to simply say to no, no she didn't want her house photographed. I tried to explain to her how I really wasn't asking, but rather informing, but she didn't want to hear it. I told her to call the police if she liked, but instead she called her attorney and started threatening to sue me for violating her privacy. At this point I had two choices, walk away and leave it unphotographed, or go ahead. I decided to move fast. I quickly setup my tripod and had my camera set in about 45 sec. With my hands shaking just a bit, I lined everything as best as I could as the woman came over and demanded my name, address and phone number. Um no. She wrote down my license plate, but that's OK. I was getting a little nervous that she would assault me or try to damage my gear so I skipped the Polaroids and just went right to film. 8 sheets exposed and I just threw everything in the backseat and I was off. Who knows what will come of it.

1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Charleston, West Virginia

This one is a lot busier than most. Due to the size of the building I had to back up half way down the street, but it's nice since you get the Pennsylvania Ave sign just above the stop sign. I would have liked to setup a bit more to the right, but as it was, the c-roll was parked about two feet off the curb and then I was setup to the right of the car. I can deal with it. This one shows much more atmosphere of the place as opposed to the tighter house pictures.

View from the room

Quality Inn, New Stanton, Pennsylvania

View from the room

Charleston Plaza Hotel, Charleston, West Virginia

1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Salem, Ohio

This is a huge, sprawling complex, so narrowing down what to focus on was difficult, even with the previous visit. I really like the simplicity of the silo, but then after talking to one of the guys who works here, I decided to ask to photograph the main building as well. I made another view of the silo, but I was down to two sheets of film, so I'm not sure what will come of it.

1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Lorain, Ohio

I really like this one from my first visit. It was a soft rainy morning in April and the picture really worked. I think this one works too. I waited for a while, but the shadow wasn’t moving much. I didn’t wait until the shadow was totally gone, it would have taken hours and b that time the light would be pretty harsh, but I guess the way it throws off the composition a bit. Just about every 1600 picture on this trip has been taken early morning or late evening, classic times for photography since the light is so nice. This one though, I don’t know, I sort of prefer the first picture, the softer, open light, than this crisp morning light, but we’ll see once the film comes back.

I was talking to a good friend tonight about the light in this project. I think when you’re doing a series of pictures like this, similar subject over a long period of time, you either have o go with all the same light or a variety to keep the body of work diverse. I’ve obviously gone for the latter.