Concrete Cathedrals

 U.S. Route 66, Landergin, Texas, November 1999

It's hard to believe that it has been more than twelve years ago that I began the series I now call Concrete Cathedrals.  I was on my way up out of Texas to photograph the Anasazi ruins at Mesa Verde.  I never got there, because I was captivated by the cement grain elevators which dot the landscape in the Texas Panhandle.  These particular silos are found outside the tiny ghost town of Landergin, about 10 miles west of Vega.

Since I photographed this image, I've visited hundreds of grain elevators in the United States and Canada.  It's the longest series I've worked on, and it will be my last book.  I don't ever plan on stopping work on Concrete Cathedrals.

Recovered Silver: Bringing Negatives Back From the Dead

Cadillac Graveyard, U.S. Route 66 

Amarillo, Texas, June 2006

It is very difficult photographing a place that's been made famous primarily through some predecessor's camera.  Such is the case with the whimsical and eccentric Cadillac Graveyard outside Amarillo (which my Puerto Rican friend Marimer pronounces "Amarijo") on the famed Mother Road, U.S. Route 66.

So, instead of trying a novel angle, or ultra-saturated color palette, I put a magazine loaded with Agfapan 25 on the back of my Rolleiflex SL-66, put a yellow filter over the lens, and shot a whole roll of people interacting with the famed car sculpture.

Except, I didn't:  When I unloaded the magazine up the road, I found it'd been loaded with Fuji Velvia 50!  I had the lab pull it to ASA 25, and talk about saturation, as in yellow!

So, by virtue of my Nikon Coolscan and Adobe Photoshop, I played around and tweaked this image until it achieved its intended look.

Road Trip: New Mexico

U.S. Route 66, Santa Rosa, New Mexico, November 2006

On the same trip I visited the El Comedor Restaurant, I also ran across this relic, a detail of a sign to the Rio Pecos Truckstop.  A business that fell prey to the Interstate, the friendly trucker still greets weary motorists with a sincere "howdy."  Of course, this was almost four years ago.  I wonder if that's still readable.  

I wonder if it's even there anymore.

Road Trip: New Mexico

El Comedor Restaurant, U.S. Route 66

Moriarty, New Mexico, November 2006

When traveling the old highways of North America, I tend to not make U.S. Route 66 a destination.  Even though it's right up my alley, subject-wise, I am too busy documenting roads neglected by the photographer's lens; there are hundreds of photographers already photographing every inch of Route 66.

Nonetheless, while criss-crossing the map, I invariably happen onto Route 66, and I get sucked in by all the decaying beauty of the "Mother Road," until I'm back onto another highway whose fading relics capture my attention.