Iwert,
I found the dress in the walk-in attic of an abandoned farmhouse on the edge
of the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana. I had driven past the house many times
for a year before going to photograph the place. It was close to an
apartment I lived in at the time, but I never stopped to photograph it
because the outside of the house wasn't so interesting.
One Friday evening, I drove by the place and saw a bulldozer sitting in
front of the house! That meant the place was going to be torn down, probably
on the following Monday. So, the next day, Saturday, I went out and did some
photos of the outside of the house. As I finished, I noticed a door was
open, so I walked in. The inside was magnificent! There was an old cast-iron
sink in the kitchen, and the living room had curtains still hanging on the
windows. The whole inside floor was covered in ice, this was at the end of
December, 2000. The sun was setting and I was out of film so I rushed
downtown to the camera store and bought several rolls of 120 size Tmax 400.
I had used Tmax 100 for my exterior shots, but it was dark in there so I got
the 400 for inside.
I drove back on Sunday and went inside. After photographing the sink and the
living room, and a shower curtain in the bathroom doorway, I decided to try
to go up the icy stairs to see if anything up there was interesting. I
carried a heavy Manfrotto tripod and a huge Tamrac bag with my Mamiya 645
kit (body, a couple of backs, 4 lenses, spotmeter, and the film) up the icy
stairs with no handrail! I don't know how the hell I did that and got back
down without falling.
The bedrooms upstairs were not interesting, but I noticed a narrow hallway
going off of one of the rooms to the walk-in attic. I went down there and
THERE as the dress! I didn't even walk out onto the attic floor, it looked
unsafe. I stood my tripod in the doorway and shot two rolls of film of the
scene (the rolls were duplicates to ensure I'd have the shot if I screwed up
developing one). I had never been and never have since been paranoid about
losing a shot enough to duplicate shots on two rolls but this photo was SO
PERFECT. It has been my most popular image by far. I think it was New Years
Day, 2001 when I made the dress photo. The house was torn down the next day.
There is a gas station there now.
Here is the outside of the house:
http://www.chriscrawfordphoto.com/fine_art/portfolio/abandoned/images/pics/d
ress-house.jpg
Here is the kitchen:
http://www.chriscrawfordphoto.com/fine_art/portfolio/abandoned/photopages/si
nk.htm
Here is the bathroom shower door:
http://www.chriscrawfordphoto.com/fine_art/portfolio/abandoned/photopages/sh
ower.htm
Here is the living room:
http://www.chriscrawfordphoto.com/fine_art/portfolio/abandoned/photopages/li
ving-room.htm
--
Chris Crawford
Fine Art Photography
Fort Wayne, Indiana
260-747-3962
http://www.chriscrawfordphoto.com My portfolio
http://blog.chriscrawfordphoto.com My latest work!
On 2/20/09 9:39 AM, "iwert bernakiewicz" <zuikooh@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Congratulations, and what a fine image Chris!
>
> I'm intigued by the "architecture". Could you tell us a bit more on
> the place we see, what it was, which time, which use?
>
> All the best,
>
> Iwert
>
>>
>> http://blog.chriscrawfordphoto.com/?p=156
--
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