Signs of life at a second hand store.
Still Hanging On, Main Street USA
Category Archives: Monochrome
Another Main Street USA
This is what I saw.
Walk Through An Old Southern Cemetery
The upper area of the peninsula that makes up Charleston, South Carolina is home to a number of older southern cemeteries. Once this was the ‘country’ where war dead and large monuments could be placed.
A cemetery was a new idea breaking tradition with a person being buried in their church’s grave yard. Charleston being an old city, on the water, meant space was at a premium.
The image below is from a cemetery built because Charleston had an epidemic that filled a church grave yard. A new location was needed.
This was the mid 1800’s and wrought iron was becoming a simple and decorative fence.
Above can be seen an old brick wall that separated two different cemeteries. This side was a Lutheran cemetery, mostly German immigrants at the time. The far side was the beginning of an older established, almost Gothic, burial ground.
It’s common along here to have people born outside the US, here Hanover, Germany. Charleston was the wealthiest shipping port prior to the Civil War. Merchants moved there from all over the world beginning in the early 1700’s.
The older cemeteries (above) have many simpler grave sites. After 1861, the start of the Civil War, Charleston was no longer wealthy, or even a functioning city.
Main Street, USA, 2019
What I saw.
Main Street Always Has A Railroad Track
In years past whenever I traveled to the south I always noticed the Railroad tracks running through town. It was something I associated small rural towns with.
Actually the last place I lived up north had an old track over the Main Street. It was rarely used.
I can’t say there are more in small towns down south for sure, but I do know everywhere I go has one.
Personally I think the old signs and tracks do make a nice B&W image.
Around Main Street USA
Main Street has been an on going theme here for a long time. It started in a few small New England towns and I have carried it through to the south.
Almost always the photographs have been a monochrome format. I find it adds character and drama to the images. Some make the subject look better, some worse, but always more interesting.
Every town has a bail bonds store front on a side street. Not sure what that says about us.
A true southern fixture is the train running right across Main Street. Here I caught one passing through town on a Sunday morning.
Main Street is interesting, but the side streets have all the character.
I have learned the best time for these shoots is a Sunday morning. No people makes it much easier to get the wide angles and perspectives I want.
Photographed in Williamsburg County, South Carolina.
Sunrise And A Coastal Storm
A contradiction here, bright sunrise over the Atlantic with a squall adding some drama.
Photographed from a ‘bone yard’ in a coastal wildlife management area.
Eventually the storm moved north hugging the shore.
A Little Confused
They may want to reconsider their advertising.
