Driving from Bryce Canyon to Escalante, my attention was grabbed by this abandoned corner store in Henrieville, Utah. I'm pretty sure the Coca-Cola sign had everything to do with my attraction to this site. My dad worked for Coke most of his adult life, and I spent my high school summers working at the Coca-Cola office in Toronto. I looked up Henrieville online tonight to see what I could learn. Its population in 2000 was 159, and the population of its zip code 84736 in 2007 is 961 according to another site I found. In either case, Henrieville is truly a small western town.
After days of shooting the "grand landscape" at Bryce Canyon, it was a lot of fun to settle in and work at closer range at this site. In fact, I noticed that I was feeling quite refreshed after an hour or so of shooting; I was exercising different visual muscles.
Texture is one of my favourite subjects. Narrowing my vision to the details of a structure gives me the opportunity to express my vision by creating abstract images. Sometimes I the feedback I receive when I show my images is that I made something out of nothing. The first couple of times I heard this comment, I wondered if it was derogatory. It may have been, but I also think that making something out of nothing is a defining characteristic of photography as art. What does a photographer do? We go out into the world, beyond the creature comforts of a studio, and bring home a vision of the world that is uniquely our own.....on a good day, anyways!
6 comments:
I remember driving through that town. I am from a big city (Boston), so I figured there would be a gas station or hotel there.....you captured how naive I was!!
If you are going through HENRIEVILLE take a side trip to Kodachrome State Park. Unique rock formations and a great campground.literi
Dude. I go there almost every summer. Almost everyone in that town I'm practically related to. Haha it's so small I couldn't imagine living there. But I love it never the less. Climbing on the mountains are the best.
I owned a place and lived in this town for 7 years. Everyone in town "is" related. It is a beautiful area.
I appreciated your take on my hometown. I grew up there and always felt like my life was truly 1950's Americana -- Mark Twain style. We had huts, underground caves, trails only we knew of and freedom that no one enjoys today. We skinny-dipped and rode our horses all over that country. We owned cattle and we were privileged to be a part of that great long-lost life style. Thanks for the pictures/memories. I could tell you lots of stories about that old store building that belonged to my uncle
I grew up in Henrieville, buying 25-cent cans of root beer at that very store before it was closed.
A lot of my relatives still live there. I visit periodically, and every visit sparks a dream of going back forever. That tiny town is a slice of paradise.
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