Broken Hearts and Bicycle Parts

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I spent seven years in a fairly strict Catholic school in New York. As a result, I’m hard wired for church imagery. Out-turned palms with wounds, hearts pierced with thorns, it’s all burnt into the neurons.
So, when I came across this image wired on the back of a bike, it caught my eye. It was while I was walking around Atlanta’s suburbs, and evidently “Broken Hearts and Bicycle Parts” is an informal bike club there. It’s a subtle use of the Sacred Heart image, forming the center of a chain ring.

Just a box sitting in the sun

I turned around from the computer and saw this box, sitting in the sun filtered through the blinds. I can’t say that I know why, but I took a photograph.

Photo above by Billy Hunt

If you live in or near Charlottesville and are interested in photography, you should try to catch Charlottesville Photo Night. To find out more about it, and when the next event is, check their web site at http://www.cvillephotonight.org .

This last Wednesday was a show and talk by Billy Hunt. It was his photographs of CLAW, which stands for the Charlottesville Lady Arm Wrestlers. However, CLAW events are designed to raise money for various causes. Look here; http://clawville.wordpress.com/ .

Billy Hunt gave a very animated talk on his experience as photographer for these events. Covering the event involved not only photography, but also “changing hats” to provide the music with a band. Between the photos and Billy’s story it was easy to get a feel for the wildness of a CLAW event.

West Main Doorway, Charlottesville

Click the above image for a larger view

Photo of a doorway on West Main. The leaves build up every year, the light burns on constantly, people pass to and fro to restaurants, night spots, sort of blowing up and down the street. The ivy had once grown in a pattern above the door, the work of some past business. Lots of businesses have popped up in the cracks, faded, disappeared.

I began the exposure, and a man rides up on his bike and stops. He hands me a worn notebook with a page of beautiful script, each swirl and flourish precisely the same on the page. It gives his name, says that he has been deaf since birth, so he can’t speak, and that his family could use some help. I give him some bucks, we shake hands, and he rides off. He has a good vibe about him.
I like West Main. It always has been something in between something else.

These surreal structures are just a short walk from the "Corner" in Charlottesville, and also a short sprint from the Rotunda at U.Va. People who drive or walk through these areas are likely to never see them, as they are tucked carefully behind one of the larger buildings in the U.Va. Hospital complex. These are the heating plant towers for the Hospital. They are called the UVA Coal Towers. Some are newly constructed. UVA Hospital uses coal for most of its heating needs.

Generally I shoot black and white film for night photography, but I have been experimenting with color negative (Fuji NPS 160 - 120 roll film). This was taken with a shift lens architectural camera called a Plaubel Makina Proshift.