After his first assignment, we decided to give our staff photographer Stephens Brosnihan another chance at covering the Gloucester news beat. This… is what he gave us.
Beige is the New Black
The Clamtributors asked me to cover the second public hearing of the ‘Reimagining Railroad’ project held this Monday night between 6 and 8 pm. Being so close to the the Golden Hours of pre-sunset light, I was bereft to think of such precious photons being lost to interior shots of talking heads in City Hall. So, I headed down to the locus of the imaginary citadel that is being proposed. In preparation for the shoot I built a pinhole camera, reimagining an oatmeal box into an imaging device. It’s a classic beginner’s project, parting the seas of technique and techné to reveal the essence of the materials at hand. The lens is the only carefully considered element, and it is but a tiny, clean and round hole.
I was graced by an outbound commuter during my first shoot and was immediately transported to post-war Paris and the origins of musique concrète. The girth and power of the diesel locomotive producing seismic emanations evoked Pierre Schaeffer’s Etude aux chemins de fer, 1948. I had found my muse.
For full effect, load this URL in a backgrounded tab in your browser and continue reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9pOq8u6-bA
The paper negative is so well suited to the cardboard camera. Pulp suits itself. I used some stale Xtol developer to bring the latent images to bear. It ended up being a good paper developer, though still a little fast. Next time I’ll dilute the depleted stock for this purpose. I was certainly on my toes in the red light.
Reimag[in]ing of the core of Gloucester’s public transit gateway? It seems to be well underway with or without our ‘input.’ Beige rectangles (and triangles), while minimalist and demonstrating an economy of imagination, refuse to command a meaningful transition for Gloucester into the next realm of future possibilities (cultural or economic) and certainly ignore that which represents the aesthetic heart or spiritual soul of our fair city. The de facto boatyard abutting the train station provides a bitter richness and self evident reality that is superior and yet will likely be superseded by some soul-depleted franchise. Is beige the new black?
Type ‘beige strip mall’ into google images or if you’re feeling randy, try this for fucking beige: http://www.post-data.org/beige/
Thanks Stevens, your final link sent me into an epileptic fit and triggered my migraine…. otherwise, NAILED IT!
There are so many simple (and not vastly expensive) things that could be done to the area around the station that would make a huge difference. But, no….not Glosta. It’ll be both over-wrought and under-done. And bland. And still a shit-hole.
I think they’re starting relatively small – crosswalks, ADA acceptable sidewalks, trying small things to fix the shitty railroad/prospect/maplewood intersection, better signage.
although they did show a slide that demolished the 7/11 and our former location and put leafy trees and condos in “just in case the owners of the property want to redevelop”. NOT LIKELY.
WTF is this? I thought it might be much needed coverage of an important city effort to redesign and improve an area that needs it badly and all we get is posing and bitter irony?
Were you at the meeting? I was.
Yes
We are planning to do a longer form article, but this is a satire based take on Gloucester. We can’t please everyone.
….whoosh…..
Well done!