Time Changes Things

The importance of juxtaposition.

I love using that word - juxtaposition - as much as I dread spelling it. And ditto for a word originating in the Renaissance - chiaroscuro. Back around 1981 I was still learning the ropes; shooting with a 4x5 camera, developing my own film, and doing my own printing. And scouring the countryside for subject matter. Which back then was pretty close to home, about a 15 minute drive out into the country, in a rural community located in Virginia Beach, known as Pungo. When I came across this location it gave me all the elements that I wanted, and still look for in a photograph of this nature: clouds to fill the sky and gorgeous light striking the subject, which gives me that “chiaroscuro”, or contrast between light and dark with, for a photographer working with black and white film, those gray tones in between.

Look at the black roof of the house and then the white front of the porch. Then look at the gray back to the our right of the house. That’s the chiaroscuro that I’m seeking. And the juxtaposition is in the contrast of the peaceful farm and the menacing clouds, and even more so in the comparison of the farmhouse to the massive grain bins behind it.

In 2018 I revisited the location and shot it again for comparison with the RB67 and black and film. Same sense of clouds but notice how “weaker” the composition is because the farmhouse is gone - which was the juxtaposition in the 1981 image. And they've grown their operation to adding additional buildings.

And a boat.

So notice the difference, and importance, of how time has changed the image. This is one of the reasons why photographers like me scour the countryside and document what we see. We know it’s all temporal. But hopefully our work will outlive both our subject matter and ourselves.

The image from 1981 with the 4x5. I was driving a Pinto back then. This was exhibited at the Chrysler Museum in 1982.

The same location in 2018, shot with an RB67. And now I’m driving a Honda Fit.