#48: Salisbury Viaduct
Sorry for the delay this week. I’m on the road. The schedule being what it is (five shows in five nights in five states from New Jersey to Michigan), there hasn’t been time to focus on a post.
I like the drives, and a new interest in photography means I’m always keeping an eye out for possible shots. “Keeping an eye out” makes it sound like the shots are there just waiting to be found, like grain silos or abandoned farmhouses falling in on themselves. Yes, in objective terms, those things are “out there”. But so much of photography has nothing to do with the found world.
First, technical skill is a given. Like musicianship, it’s purpose is to erase any impediment between the creative impulse and execution. I’m light years from that kind of fluidity. Many, many years ago I knew my way around an SLR. But I seem to have forgotten pretty much everything. Fine. Beginner’s mind is good. But in the time I spend bumbling through f-stops and shutter speeds, the subject—or the light—will often have evaporated. On the other hand (and as is also the case in music) lack of skill can produce results. Sometimes it’s preferred.
The second non-objective element has to do with seeing. It’s not just that I see the sunlight passing through the second floor windows of the abandoned farmhouse collapsing in on itself, slowly, snowfall by snowfall. I must also be looking for it— seeing deliberately, actively. I think they call it paying attention. But it’s tricky. It’s easy to fall into a kind of greediness and grasping. A bit of anxiety creeps into the process as I wait for the perfect combination of light and shadow to triangulate with the eye, my position. But I’m traveling on the highway. I see it and it’s gone, again and again.
Being able to embrace chance and randomness is the antidote to anxious grasping. No photos will be taken if I’m operating a vehicle traveling at 75 mph. Better to just cue up an Ezra Klein episode. That doesn’t mean I’m not still seeing. There’s the road for starters. But it’s a lighter sort of seeing, not so charged. I keep registering light and shadow. But I don’t need to capture it, seize it. Photos go by and I let them (as if they needed my permission!).
Given the briskness of my schedule this past week, I’d been sticking to the Eisenhower Interstate System. No time for detours. And you can’t just pull over on I-70 to capture that perfect juxtaposition of the old and new America. So I was glad when the app sent me up the Mason Dixon Highway.
It took a while for my mind to adjust. By the time I realized what kind of road I was on (one where it’s possible to pull over and take a look around) I’d already gone through Meyersdale, PA. But when the Salisbury Viaduct appeared, I was ready. Flashers on, well over on the shoulder, I started bumbling through f-stops and shutter speeds, proceeding by trial and error. My only goal was to get a solid shot of that early 20th century iron against the sky. But as if on cue, chance and randomness sent a Kenworth roaring into the frame just as I was depressing the shutter. Scared the hell out of me, but I’ll take it.
Tomorrow I’ll be driving back to Beacon, NY (a kind of home away from home). There’s no particular rush to arrive. I’m looking forward to many detours.
Great shot. Would have been even cooler if it was a Kenworth!
Love the truck sneaking up in your side view mirror. What a great shot! Thank you for sharing it.