.
Last Call, George's, Vernalis, California. Argus c3 with long expired (and damaged) technical pan: photo by efo, 22 June 2014
After
a period of time things start to rot and crumble. Decay is always
happening, even when no one's looking. And now no one's ever going to be
looking any more. That movement in the tall grass, an almost
imperceptible rustling, a changing of the depth of shadow, those
disconnected power lines, that telephone that's never going to ring.
Abandonment. No one's oiled the ferris wheel motor in living memory.
Rust moves across the vacant lots with the stealth of a thief. The
temporary businesses have departed. The electricity has stopped flowing.
Rattlesnakes and weeds and dust, all that's left. There's no place like
Ohm, and in Ohm nobody's ever going to be home any more.
Forks of Buffalo, Virginia: photo by efo, 4 July 2014
Country fair, Bustleburg, Virginia: photo by efo, 4 July 2014
Dwelt (Ohm, California): photo by efo, 22 June 2014
Dwelt vdb (Ohm, California). Selenium toned Van Dyke brown print. San Joaquin Valley, California. Shot with the indomitable Kodak No. 2 Folding Cartridge Hawk-Eye Model B with the aperture limiter removed, around f/10 : photo by efo, 7 July 2014
George's Service, Vernalis, California photo by efo, 22 June 2014
Last Call, George's, Vernalis, California. Argus c3 with long expired (and damaged) technical pan: photo by efo, 22 June 2014
When all presence is continually haunted by absence and all appearances are replaced by disappearances, every ghost town gets to look a lot like every other ghost town; so that, in truth, it might just be possible to feel right at home in Ohm, so long as one kept one's distance.
ReplyDeleteIn the dimlit back of the mind all along, perhaps, was this:
Wallace Stevens: Disappearance
... and triggered by certain other disappearances, the sudden fading of summer, not to mention the amazing way everything inessential seems to escape from every frame of every efo photograph, leaving only the soul.