Here in the Midwestern United States much of our history lay in the ruins of our abandoned farms. The eerie loneliness one feels when approaching a home or barn that was once useful and full of life can be over whelming. I personally think about the structures age, the hands that worked hard building them because they needed them. And they stood strong and proud for years upon years until that fateful day the their usefulness was replaced or they were simply abandoned. That is the case with our image here. Large timbers, hand cut are still solid. The panels on the exterior have weathered badly with time, the roof that once sheltered the animals that lived inside no longer can. I can stare at this and imagine the men, women and children that worked here. The children who played in and out of it when the daily chores were finished. Je peux encore e'tre utile : I can sill be useful if only someone wanted me to be.
Photographed on a cold December morning in 2003, using a minolta XE7 and a Rokkor 35mm 1.8 prime lens wide open on twenty year old Kodak Tri-X film. Image was scanned full frame using a Minolta DiMage 5400 film scanner.
