Photography Is Home.
Around 10 years ago, I was fighting a major case of wanderlust. All I wanted to do was hop on a plane or jump in my car and go somewhere, anywhere, to photograph.
That was the dream.
To land in some faraway city or country(although I never left the States…I should probably renew my passport).
Or traveling the open road; with frequent stops along the way to nowhere, because:
The journey is the destination.
Exploring an unfamiliar space with a camera is exciting, at least to me. That's why I own a few photobooks detailing the Great American Road Trip.
In 2017, I got my hands on an inexpensive 4x5 view camera, and for some reason, I actually thought I was going to rephotograph Uncommon Places (at least the places Shore photographed in Texas - where I live…)
I managed to make one photograph, of an empty field in Galveston, Texas where Shore photographed a house on M Street:
I mostly just wasted a box of color film because I didn’t know how to load 4x5 film holders properly.
It hurts you deep down emotionally when you hear a $5 sheet of film popping loose inside the camera when you put the darkslide back in after making what you hoped was a decent photograph…that you’ll never get to see.
The only good thing about that trip to Galveston was that I learned to load sheet film holders properly afterward.
Then, I decided to commit fully to the view camera and purchased a more sturdy, proper field camera and a box of cheaper black-and-white film. Instead of driving off to some corner of Texas or trying to follow in Shore’s tripod holes, I decided to photograph my city—Dallas, Texas.
I was driving 30 miles each way to my day job (well, before the pandemic), so the camera just took a permanent spot in the back seat. I alternated ways to and from work and hopped out whenever I saw something I wanted to photograph.
I started photographing around the city. Making a portrait of the city using images of small random spaces found throughout Dallas.
I didn’t realize that I had stumbled my way into a project (I know how some photographers don’t like that word), but I was trying to familiarize myself with working with the view camera.
The great thing about stumbling into a photo project is that you don’t realize what’s happening until you have many images.
Then, one day, you look over the photos and say, “Hey, I think I might have something here.”
I kept looking and kept seeing photographs
I started calling this body of images Photographs From Dallas, and strangely enough, my need for traveling disappeared.
You know what’s funny?
Nowadays, I dread the thought of planning and preparing for a photography trip, especially when there are so many photographic subjects within my city, some not even a few minutes from my front door.
Eventually, the plan is to have a book of these photographs in the Dallas Central Library.
A grand dream, I know, and one that is a ways off, I have years and years of photographs ahead of me, and spaces in the city that I have yet to explore.
Thanks for Reading!
Until next time,
Laidric
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