I’ve been adding new photographs, but they are newly edited. Other than the odd experiment here and there I haven’t been out on a photo excursion for quite a while. That ended this past Saturday, when we took a trip up to Bethlehem SteelStacks for cars and coffee. Misha loves old cars, and if I were more mechanically inclined, we’d probably have some classic from Detroit hiding in our garage.

I like old cars too, but not like Misha. Well, maybe if we were specifically talking about a 63 Lincoln with suicide doors, or a 63 Cadillac Deville or Sedan de Ville Brougham, black with a ragtop, then my interest would be peaked. I’d gladly give up my garage space for either.

As it turns out, it wasn’t the cars that caught my eye, it was rust. There is plenty of rust at Bethlehem Steel. The last shift at the mill was November 18, 1995. Part of the grounds for the once mighty mill have been converted to public use like Cars and Coffee. The city of Bethlehem is rebranding itself as an art hub and the Christkindlmarkt is world class.

I thought I would edit rust as black and white, but in this case the color contrast between the reddish foreground plate stands out very well against the greenish paint of the rear plate. There is just a trace of the same color on the fore plate in the peeling paint. That color contrast which I find very appealing is lost when the photograph is converted to black and white. Not to worry, I made two more photographs from the same excursion that are black and white.

Last Saturday was the second time I went to Cars and Coffee. The first trip I concentrated mainly on the mill itself, with the “stacks” getting prime attention. After the first trip I began thinking about doing a series on industrial decay. The remnants of the United States’ once premier manufacturing industries. Detroit, I think would be a prime location. A photographic commentary on Industrial America’s shortsightedness then and now. It is an idea.