KENNECOTT MINE

Kennecott Mine, Alaska

Ellen and I spent July 1st venturing over to McCarthy, Alaska and the Kennecott Mine.  Copper was found at the turn of the 20th century in this very remote part of the state.  Seems to prospectors were roaming the area -- cannot imagine anyone just roaming around in these parts -- and looked up at an area on the mountain that looked like a green meadow (their words).  Turned out it was one of the richest copper discoveries on the North American continent. What is amazing is how they got all this stuff up here. Next to the super big Kennicott Glacier (seems the glacier, the town, and the river are spelled with an "i" and the mine was mis-spelled with and "e").  Morgan and Guggenheim money was behind it all.  On the left of the image are the glacial moraines -- there is ice under all those piles.

There are only a couple of buildings you can see inside of, but the National Park Service is slowly reclaiming and rehabing some of the buildings.

Worth a visit if you are in the area.  And a good read on wiki -- 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennecott,_Alaska

The mine is part of the largest of our national parks, the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.

DENALI

Denali National Park, Alaska

That place is amazing.  The sheer magnitude of everything there is sensual overload.  It is difficult to describe because there are really no words.  Smoke from forest fires and daily thunder storms obscured the distant views, and of course view of the great mountain itself. Was not to be our time to see Denali -- "the tall one."  But I have two more visits to the park scheduled, and maybe I'll get lucky.  The rangers say that the mountain is only clear for about 30 days each year, and in 1973, I saw it and photographed it from Wonder Lake on a perfectly clear day -- much like the famous Ansel Adams and E. O. Goldbeck images.

Everywhere you drive in this state it is spectacular -- driving south from the park in light rain yesterday, this was the view.

Mile 174 Parks Highway, Alaska

As you can see in the image, it is fireweed season.  And even though it is very dry in general, everything where I went the vegetation was lush.  The fresh green of the just leafed out aspen against the dark green of the black spruce.

Valdez, Alaska

And of course, Alaska is full of eccentrics, part of the nature of people who will live here year round. However, Alaska has changed much since I was hear last in 1976.  Back then, it still had a wild feel to it.  Towns like Nenana still had dirt streets -- they're paved now.  Willow and Wasilla were a few buildings, a gas station, and some houses off dirt lanes.  Now they have Dairy Queens and McDonalds, and just about everything any lower 48 town has.  Sad, I miss that wilder, more raw time. Oil and the  pipeline changed it, me thinks.  It flooded money and people into the state, and now Anchorage looks just like any other city its size with suburbs sprawling up the mountain sides that surround it, and shopping malls everywhere.  I'm a little disappointed to see this, but then it has been 39 years since I was last here.  Thankfully the mountains don't change, and the salmon still fill the rivers this time of year. Might catch a few if I can keep from falling and dunking myself in the river.

GOING SOUTH

Turnagain Arm, Alaska 6-15-2015

No, not towards home, but rather towards Homer.  Sitting at the end of Kenai Peninsula, that's as far as you can drive down that way.  After that, you have to board a ferry to points further south.  Turnagain Arm has a bore tide, but on this day we were too early -- the tide was in and high.  That said, it's still one thrilling drive along the blue waters with mountains to your left and right -- straight up on the road side with only enough room for the highway and the railroad, and straight up out of the waters on the other side.

Homer, Alaska 6-15-2015

I had been photographing the reflections of the light on the waters with my long lens on the Pentax, and had put it away.  Just as I was about to open the door to the trailer, I notice this lone woman paddling her surf board up the fjord. This image is from my cell phone because I didn't have time to remount the long lens on the camera before she was too far away.  And there is a large industrial pier just out of the image on the left.  Still, it very much says what Homer is about.

Homer, Alaska 6-16-2015

Homer is all about boats, old and new.  Along the spit is a boat grave yard, and there are all shapes and sizes of vessels scattered about. And piles of floats, too.

Homer, AK 6-17-2015

Boys and dreams of big toys, just couldn't pass this one by.  They were there with their grandmother and couldn't resist climbing on the old Cat.  Rusty old beast and young boys, I couldn't resist, either.

IN BLACK & WHITE

Summit, British Columbia, Canada

For most of my career, almost 60 years now, I have been a black and white photographer with occasional forays into color.  I have not seriously shot a single exposure in b&w for the past 10 years, but that doesn't mean I don't still see in b&w. After all these years of gray tones, it is a bit difficult for me to see color well.  I think I do OK, but I have to think more about it.

Carcross, Yukon Territory, Canada

The lone white coat hanger, can work in color, but is far more dramatic and satisfying in b&w.  The image of the flowers painted on the side of the building just doesn't work in b&w, it is a color image.

Hammond, Montana

One of the best things about being totally digital is to have your cake and eat it, too.  Meaning, of course, I can have both color and b&w in one camera.  I know in the back of my brain, I'm still seeing the graphics of the b&w image while looking at it in color.  After all, even when shooting b&w film, we are still looking at the real world in color.  The switch happen entirely in the mind, but I must admit that I look at every image I make not only in the original color as shot, but convert the image to b&w when I get it on my computer. I love being able to do that.  FYI: the above b&w images are not grayscale, they are RGB images, and have a color balance layer where I have added a small amount of warmth to the shadows. It's just the way I roll.

IN ALASKA.....finally 6-11-2015

Along the Alaska Highway in the Yukon Territores, Canada

For the past week, the internet has been, at best, barely able to move text.  But this afternoon, we pulled into Fairbanks which is the official end of the ALCAN Highway.  First order of business was grocery shopping -- the US Customs would not let us bring frozen chicken nor eggs across the border.  Something to do with Asian bird flu.....????  Anyway, it took a couple of meals from us, however we had been eating on stores purchased almost a week ago in southern Alberta.

Carcross, BC, Canada

Klondike Highway, BC, Canada

We stayed for two nights in Whitehorse, YT, Canada, in order to make a side trip down to Skagway, Alaska.  Travel is on the Klondike Highway which is basically the route over the coastal mountains the gold rush miners climbed by foot on their way to the gold fields of Dawson City, YT.  It was a hell-of-a-drive, rugged, RUGGED country.  Hard to believe that people did this route on foot ferrying hundreds of pounds of clothing, food, and equipment,  Absolutely stunning country. There wee five, yes, FIVE cruise ships in the Skagway harbor.  People were 10 deep on the street of this very small port town.

Alaska Highway, Alaska

About twenty miles into Alaska, we came to a recent forest fire.  It took several miles of driving to get past it, but about halfway through I saw this one white tree standing alone and surround by many burned black spruce.  Was shockingly stunning. Would have stayed longer to make more images but the rains were upon us.  We have not had a day without rain since we entered Montana on about the 2nd of June.  A squall is passing as I write this.

MONTANA

Hobson, Montana 6/2/2015

All across the plains states rise great tall structures, monuments and testaments to the way of life and the economy in these parts.  I especially admire to older grain silos, the wooden ones that are now abandoned. Fields of freshly planted wheat, corn, and soy beans occupy most every acre. Here and there are fields of the last crop planted and not yet turned for this year's crop.

  

Most of these wooden silos are not painted, but rather left to Mother Nature to gray down the wood with a special patina. 

And in Montana this time of year, weather is always dramatic as witnessed by the first image in this post.  No we didn't get wet, but made it back to the truck before all hell broke loose. 

MAKE A CURVE SHOT

Couldn't post yesterday because the band-width at the KOA campground where we stayed was just not much to write home about. Am continuing to make image across Iowa, and tonight we're just inside Minnesota at Jackson. Covered a lot of ground today and saw mostly 6-inch high corn, and just sprouting soy beans.

However, yesterday yielded a couple of interesting images. This one is in Adair, IL. Talked to a local and he told us the Pool Hall is still in use....really? Would have loved to go inside, but not possible. Just inside the front door is a barber's chair with a pool table further back in the single room. We were told they play pool every Thursday evening, and if you want, the owner of the building's wife will cut your hair.

Down the road a bit is the town of Good Hope, IL. Driving through we were mildly surprised to find they use pink trash bins. Stopped a guy coming down the street on in riding mower. He had just comed from mowing his mother's yard at the house where he was born. He said it was just the town's way of supporting breast cancer research.

TODAY, OHIO, tomorrow Indiana

Jeromeville, Ohio

Today was a pretty good day.  Last evening had my doubts because heavy thunderstorms knocked the trailer around pretty good even though the stabilizer jacks down.  Rained really hard for about 20 minutes.  A bit scary because the power went out once.  But it was mostly clear this morning.  I think I made six good images today.  Late in the day we drove through a heavy thunderstorm, but later it cleared and we found some more images.

Somewhere in western Ohio

No doubt we are in farm land.  Wheat, oats, dairy cattle, and lots and lots of acres of freshly planted fields, some even sprouting.

Tonight we are barely inside Indiana. Onward.

NORTH TO ALASKA

I have been planning this trip to Alaska for almost forever.  This morning I departed home and headed west.  Yes, I am driving, driving very slowly.  This is not my first trip, the Navy sent me to Adak and Attu in the Aleutian Islands, and I made driving trips during the summers of 1973 and 1976.  The latter trip I had hoped to find a job there and stay. That didn't happen.  I've wanted to do this driving trip for the longest time, and this past fall I talked my wife, Ellen into doing it.  Previous trips were roughing it a bit, but this time I'm traveling a bit more comfortable. This is our new rig.

The purpose of this grand road trip, as with all my road trips, is to make images.  I looking for those things and scenes that talk about our culture.  Sometimes sad, sometimes poignant, sometimes melodramatic, sometime hilarious, but always relevant to my central theme: a landscape with a cultural overlay, the iconic and the ironic.

Today I photographed this in Petersburg, New York.  It is very difficult to make a Y-turn with 25-foot of trailer dragging behind you.  It was five miles down the road before a place presented itself large enough to reverse direction.  Even then it's immensely difficult find a place on the side of the road to pull off safely.  I saw these broken stairs but had to drive almost five miles before I could reverse direction, but so worth effort.

 
I hope to post almost daily, but as we move further towards Alaska, I expect to have less opportunity to plug into the web.  Onward.

CELL PHONE CAMERAS

Marlborough, MA

Portmouth,NH

Worcester, MA

Worcester, MA

I have always been on to carry a camera with me just about everywhere I go.  And lately that camera has been my cell phone.  I have to admit that my first camera in a ;phone I had was not very good, maybe better stated as poor.  Things have improved muchly since that time.  No, I do not have an iPhone, rather a Samsung Galaxy Note II.  Could never bring myself to own an Apple product, I don't like the taste of heir CoolAid.  The Note II's camera is only 8-mega-pixels, but if the light is good, it does very well.  In fact, I would put it up against the old Canon Rebel XT which I owned about 10 years ago.  Think about that: a simple cell phone camera performing at the level of a dSLR.  Last week my wife and I upgraded our Note II's to the new Note 4.  It's camera is really good, 1000% improvement over the Note II.  I'll try and post a few images in the next few weeks to show what it can do.  I was thinking about buying mirrorless small camera to carry with me, but with this new phone, I'm rethinking that.

JUST LIVING......WELL

My kitchen in West Boylston 17 November 2014

20-and-a-half years ago we moved into this house with a non-functioning kitchen. Two completely kaputt wall ovens, a loud noise making Sub Zero frig, and only one burner working on the cooktop. First order of business was rip out the old and start on the new. Set up a temp kitchen way in back of the house in the old laundry room. Coleman two-burner propane stove and a microwave. Could cook and do laundry at the same time.

Even before we set about designing the new kitchen (above), we stripped the old kitchen down to studs and joist.  We being, me, Ellen and Libbie. Rewired and re-plumbed the entire room.  When I took down the ceiling, I found two wire-nutted live circuits laying loose on top of the plaster.  The debris almost filled a 30-yard dumpster.  When we pulled up the floor I found five split joist.  That was more work than Ellen could help with me and I put in a emergency call to my brother to come help with that not so small problem.  Had to pull up all the subflooring, sister in new joist, and then lay new 3/4" tounge-n-grove subfloor.  

Ellen and I sat down and designed what we wanted the kitchen to function and look like.  What you see above is how it tuned out.  I wanted the business (cooking) end to be separate from the area where people sit and give grief to the cook. All the cook's work takes place at the far end, and the hecklers sit at the counter end of the island.

Behind me is a very open wall into our breakfast room, and to the right is the family room which is accessed through six foot opening from both the kitchen and the breakfast room. Wanted it to be a very open design.  The three rooms function like one big open room.

BATHROOMS

Me, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, Michigan  Oct 10, 2014

I know, I KNOW! It's not something I do very often, but if the opportunity presents itself, why not. If nothing else, photography is all about opportunity.  I have a friend who photographs himself in bathroom mirrors all the time (you can see a few of them here:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/louiedespres/sets/).  The "selfie" craze seems to have taken over social media these days, but "selfies" are nothing new, especially to photographers.  Every photographer I know has, at one time or another, pointed the camera at him or herself.  This genre has a history as old as photography itself.  I even give my beginning students an assignment to do just that, make a self portrait.  And there is always one or two who adopt the genre semester after semester.  I tell them the great advantage of doing self portraits is they don't have to hunt for a model.

FALL

All this color happened within a mile of my house.  While not great images, the colors of fall here in New England are hard to pass up.  The gazebo is on the town common here in West Boylston.  I have assigned my digital class to come up with one fall image for their next critique class.

SHORT TRIP TO THE MET IN NYC

New York City

I had been meaning all summer to make it down to NYC to see the Garry Winogrand exhibition at the MET.  Finally made it down last Saturday, the day before it closed.  Better late than never.  However, it was a good day because the museum was not crowded.  So great to see all the images I have known for so long.  This was probably the 5th or 6th Winogrand exhibition I've seen, most recently his "Women Are Beautiful" portfolio (in it's entirety) at the Worcester Art Museum.  It was my honor to furnish them with a print of Winogrand working the streets of Austin, Texas, for their introduction. You can't see an exhibition of this man life's work without being inspired, so as we were moving about NYC, I made a couple of images.  The top on from the window of the cab in which I was riding, and the bottom one made while waiting for the museum to open.  

ON MY WAY TO DO SOMETHING ELSE

Worcester, MA 8/21/14

On the 21st of August, my wife was being honored by the city of Worcester because the American Antiquarian Society, of which my wife Ellen is President of the Society, had received in Washington the week, the before Presidential Metal for the Humanities presented by President Obama.  As to the image above, I saw this on my way to the Worcester Common where the city's ceremony was being held.  It is just a reminder that you should always have you camera with you because you never know what will present itself at the end of the next block.  That's why I was downtown, camera in tow, to make a couple of images of Ellen being honored by the city.  I am always be willing to take the two minutes to stop and make an image no matter the rush I might happen to be in.

CLASSES HAVE STARTED

Worcester, MA 9/7/14

Yes, another school year has started which means I'm back on my academic schedule.  All day long, Mondays and Wednesdays from 9 a.m to almost 7 p.m.  Like my groups of students.....so far.

Not only did I travel in the spring, but also spent 10 days in extreme upstate New York -- Lake George and points north, this late summer. Wanting to see what Stieglitz saw in the area.  Can assure you he would not be pleased.  Nothing but tourist and tourist traps.....sigh. Been living in central MA for 22 years, and had never taken the time to travel in that direction.  In the coming weeks, I'll post a few images from the trip.  As to the image above, I'm always looking for unusual shrines, and I saw this one yesterday, but didn't have time to stop.  So I went back this morning because I knew the light would be really good.....and it was. 

TRAVELING AGAIN...

Grayson County, Texas 10 March 2014

Just home from another trip across upper West Texas and over to New Mexico.  While I'm still finding places and things that interest me, they are getting fewer and further between.  I don't doubt why, after all, I've been out there searching for this stuff for over 40 years, and nothing last forever.  It's hard to describe what I feel the moment I come upon a scene that makes me doubt what I'm seeing, or at least do a double-take.  The image above is a good illustration of that moment.  I've said many times that it is not my intent to explain my images, I like to leave that to the viewer.  Besides, a well known curator once told me: "You just take the pictures, we'll do the talking."  

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY

http://lenscratch.com/2014/01/frank-armstrong/

What with the start of school, dealing with my gallery in Boston (Panopticon Gallery) and getting the stuff ready for the LENSCRATCH, it has certainly been a busy three weeks.  I couldn't be more humbled than to have Aline Smithson run the page on me this morning.  She one of the best and nicest people I've met in the past few years while trying to do this photography thing.  Thanks, Aline.

JUST THINKING ABOUT THE YEAR....OR YEARS

Boston, MA 2011

I last posted in November, and expressed by feelings of guilt for somewhat giving up on my blog.  Like I said, it was not that I had run out of things to say, but more that I had run out of time to say them on the blog. I was sitting here this morning looking at the thermometer outside my kitchen window -- it read -5F -- and knew that I would not venture out of the house today.  It's snowing lightly and we are supposed to add another 2-5 inches to the 8 inches that fell Saturday night and Sunday morning.  No only do I not want to go outside, but the dog is rather hesitant for outdoor business, also.

I'm now in my 78th year and have been photographing for more than 50 years.  This past year has been the most busy year yet in my career.  It all started last spring when I participated in the faculty show at Clark University where I teach two courses each semester.  Barely got my grades in before FlashForward Boston and the exhibition "[photo]Gogues, New England", an exhibition of portfolios by New England photo teachers, followed by the New England Portfolio Reviews where I was a reviewer. 

Time out from the photo world to accompany my wife, Ellen, on a cruise down the eastern coast to visit Civil War battlefields, museums, and forts.  AAS was one of the sponsors of the trip which meant that Ellen had to go, and if she had to go, so did I.

A house project or two -- like cleaning out our garage and re-organizing everything out there.  Who knew how much we had accumulated in the 19 years we've own this house.  It's all very pretty now and even have room to put the snow blower behind my truck rather than parking it between our two vehicles at the opening of the garage creating a hassle getting in/out our cars.  I was so proud of the job we did, I posted images on Facebook.

All of June and part of July is gone now, and I have to prepare for a show for the Higgins School for the Humanities at Clark.  Printing and reprinting 11 big prints, and then matting and framing.  And during this time making an application for a major fellowship that required not only a fair amount of writing, but also a 20 print portfolio. Mid-August and classes are starting in another week at Clark.  I have agreed to conduct a 4-day workshop during the second weekend of September on Star Island, New Hampshire -- one of the Isles of Shoals out in the Atlantic from Portsmouth, NH.  Got to admit that I met a lot of nice people from the New Hampshire Society of Photographic Artist who was the sponsor of the workshop.  

When classes are underway I have little time for much else, but managed to have a portfolio of eight prints for the "On First Contact" exhibition at the Panopticon Gallery in Boston.  September is gone and I now trying to find some rest in October.  But I must be wicked for I find no time for rest.  I have to start printing on "tree" portfolio that's been requested by a Boston collector.  Thanksgiving and family is coming.

 It has been my practice to go to school every day the week before the finals for photo classes to help people with their final projects.  Last day of classes was December 9, and here it is the 17th.  I have not turned in my grades which I hope to do sometime this week.  I hate grading, it just seems so unfair on so many levels.  I have yet to even think of Christmas shopping.  All my time this week has been spent preparing images that people have purchased for Christmas giving, and I have to get them in the mail by tomorrow.

Like I said, it's been a very busy time for this old man. Oh how I would love to jump in my truck and drive to the Southwest and spend longs days photographing.  I realize that winter days are not all that long, but they are a damn sight longer down there than here.  Only gets light enough to photograph around 7 a.m. and is completely dark by 4:30 p.m.  And as I said at the beginning of this post, the temperature was -5F and it's snowing.....again.  I'm staying inside today.

IOOF Home, Worcester, MA October 22, 2013

Early in this semester, I challenged one of my independent study students to gain access to the old and abandoned IOOF retirement home in Worcester. And she did just that. Vacated a number of years ago, it has fallen to vandalism, and general disrepair from weathering.  For the past couple of years, I have wondered what the place looked like inside.  For some reason unknown to me, I am drawn to such places. I like finding order in total chaos, and the place is totally chaos.  Paint is pealing everywhere, walls have been opened to steal the copper plumbing, and water infiltration has brought ceilings down.  In the next few days, I will be posting some images I've been making of the interior.  The above image is a "selfie" made a couple of weeks ago.  I'm a fool in front of a mirror.