picture_imperfect .

Iceland, finally

2011-11-13T21:04:00.004-05:00

The Renaissance

2011-04-25T22:37:00.004-04:00

I didn't think this abandoned Catholic nursing home could be any awesomer before discovering its name. As far as I can tell, old people were being "re-born" here between circa 1940 and circa July, 2005. I'll be spending a lot more time in the Renaissance this summer.

The Mill

2010-11-07T18:53:00.003-05:00

Sacred & Profane, again

2010-10-24T19:18:00.002-04:00

the farmhouse

2010-08-20T20:48:00.003-04:00

Jordan's Meat Factory, After the Fire

2010-05-10T21:01:00.007-04:00

digitally decomposed

2010-03-12T21:54:00.006-05:00

i didn't pay

2010-03-12T21:02:00.010-05:00

went to Geneva in January for "business" and couldn't help but watch a little late-night tv in my hotel room.
me and the Bechers would prefer these as a grid
oh, well:

All Tomorrow's Parties (part deux)

2009-10-04T16:18:00.009-04:00

Took more grainy pictures of seedy places at Kutsher's during this year's ATP music festival in the Catskills. Things hadn't changed much since last September:

Slides

2009-07-09T21:47:00.006-04:00

Outside Portland Hall

2009-05-10T17:21:00.009-04:00

Make room for another parking lot! I met the owner of this former MECA dorm while shooting these (he was nice enough to let me continue photographing but not nice enough to let me inside) and learned that the three rear wings of the building will soon be razed. Looks like the front of the building is being readied for (luxury?) condominia.

Inside Portland Hall

2009-05-10T17:12:00.004-04:00

Barcelona/Mallorca

2009-04-26T19:15:00.005-04:00

Orient Express

2009-04-05T22:44:00.005-04:00

A bit of what I saw at the Asylum on Friday:

20/20

2009-03-22T23:43:00.011-04:00

Digi-Vision

Cops

2009-02-21T12:38:00.007-05:00

My camera and I watched a little
digital TV last night:

Beach Plastic

2009-01-31T14:36:00.007-05:00

Dusk on Sebago

2009-01-25T16:36:00.009-05:00

Tunnel-vision:

Amtrak Downeaster

2009-01-03T11:27:00.008-05:00

Here are some views from the west side of the train between Woburn and Portland.

It was a snowy and overexposed day:

Cascades

2008-12-13T21:07:00.012-05:00

This first image isn't mine (MyTravelGuide.com doesn't seem to know that the building was razed months ago): by the time I found the Saco restaurant/hotel, no one with a walker would have dared enter, even for a lobster special.

I'm posting these today because yesterday I bought a great Matt Robbins photo at the Bakery Collective auction which he shot of the front of this place last winter during a snow storm.

I only got interiors:

Portland Nights

2008-12-07T12:26:00.006-05:00

I didn't even trespass once while shooting these.

Nonetheless, I had a small run-in with the police after taking a picture of the front of a convenience store (below). I think the combination of a hood and tripod was a little too scary for a Cumberland Ave neighbor who alerted the authorities of my questionable activities.

After convincing two officers (one arrived as back-up just after the first) that my motives were benign I continued my wanderings but soon realized I was being tailed; it took them about an hour to lose interest in me.

Another place I shouldn't have been

2008-11-19T23:12:00.006-05:00

Made a late-night entrance into a mostly vacant office building downtown. A few things were left behind, including the kitchen sink.

Holes in the floors were covered with pieces of plywood, all spray-painted with the word "hole."

I triumphantly returned home after 3:00 in the morning carrying a nicely framed 8-foot-long dry-erase board over my head (you can see a small fraction of it in the image below). It's in my kitchen now.

Should this blog be anonymous?

Going to church

2008-11-16T15:22:00.012-05:00

I guess churches just don't draw the crowds today that they used to; here's another one no longer in service.

Colin heard from one of his fellow foodies that this former Methodist church (tucked behind city hall and now hidden behind scaffolding) was vacant and worth checking out.

I soon found myself a little bloody after climbing through a broken window pane in the basement. (No, I didn't break it -- some over-eager God-seeker must have).

Pulp Friction

2008-10-29T22:06:00.009-04:00

This was one of Byron's alternative-dance-spectaculars at the Asylum. It felt kinda good to shoot some intentionally out-of-focus hyper-noisy pics from the hip as a "fuck you" to my generally anal photographic tendencies.

Photo-therapy:

Sacred & Profane

2008-10-23T19:23:00.000-04:00

Battery Steel, a defense structure built during WWII on Peak's Island, provides the setting for the annual Sacred & Profane celebration.

After a 20-minute procession from the ferry landing (led by an RV dressed as a magical white elephant that shat gold styrofoam) the 150-or-so of us eagerly arrived at the site where it all happens: an overgrown, dark and damp graffiti-tagged military monstrosity.

The whole interior is transformed into a candle-lit multi-media art space for this one-day event. This year, there were musical and theatrical performances, sculptural and painted pieces as well as sound and video installations throughout the building.

I lost track of time and took a lot of pictures.

Jordan's Fine Meat Products

2008-10-11T23:33:00.000-04:00

I like to take my camera to places that are dark, disused and smelling of decomposition. Hence my love of Jordan's Meat Factory.

The massive meat-packing factory has been closed for maybe five years now. Since its closure, it has housed squatters (later evicted in a large-scale police raid) and provided the setting for underground art and FBI training. Fungi have formed there and pigeons have died there.

There's still power there.

All Tomorrow's Parties

2008-09-28T10:46:00.000-04:00

Kutsher's, a Jewish "borscht-circuit" resort in Monticello, NY, hosted last weekend's All Tomorrow's Parties music festival. Olly and I were lucky enough to be there with about 2,000 other '90s music nostalgists.

The bands were mostly really good but you'd be better off reading about them at Pitchfork:

pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/145829-live-review-atp-new-york

The pictures here explore the mostly unseen parts of the resort, parts that ranged from pretty weird to pretty nightmarish. (Ask Olly about the basement toilets whose seats were duck-taped down as though to prevent something from crawling out).

I found that the creepiest thing about the resort's nether-regions was the pervasive feeling of contrivance I got when visiting them; everything seemed staged for my photographing pleasure. I often felt as though I were discovering not an abandoned space but rather a well-preserved art installation.

Though I was initially mad at myself for not bringing my nice camera, I think the graininess and subdued tones captured by my early-'70s vintage Canonet are actually pretty well-suited to the subject matter.

Overall, it was a pretty fuzzy weekend.