Birmingham+Art Whatever No. 13

As always, haven't been here in a while and decided to post an update on my art. Seems like the norm now, eh? Well, since my last post about a year ago, I haven't been doing much artwise. I've gone to galleries and museum exhibits, such as the Picasso to Warhol at the High Museum in Atlanta in January. Much more recently, I applied to the Birmingham Artwalk, and was accepted to show in the photography category. It's a two day "celebration"(this seems like the more appropriate description of it) on September 7-8. For the past two months, I have been preparing for this and for the next month I will be printing many images that I've been taking around Alabama and other states I've traveled to. A few of those will be posted in the coming days I have more time to do so. However, this post is dedicated to shots of Birmingham that I've taken recently. I hope to be entering this as part of a month long exhibit at a local gallery that just opened up. The theme of this exhibit is "Reflections of Birmingham", and I am approaching this in a very broad way using elements that I believe interpret what this historic city means to me and capturing this essence in four black and white images.
 

This image, titled "Craftsmanship", is a night shot of the Homewood Shoe Hospital window sign. I work close to that area and every time I pass it late at night, I see that they are always working on orders for the next day. It reminds of a time when people made an honest living from an honest job, which is similar to what I believe the working class once was in the rise of the Magic City.

This image, called "Forgotten Service", was taken in an interesting part of Birmingham. It's literally in a small corner of the Five Points South District by the park. I've driven by it so many times but never had the opportunity to admire it. Unbeknownst to the viewer, a locked fence surrounds this long forgotten establishment, whose purpose in the past is virtually unidentifiable due to the faded lettering surrounding the decaying door. There are many buildings like this around Birmingham. Left to be forgotten as new ones replace it and the busy lives of the citizen diminish any memory of them.

 A late night out in the empty Lakeview area brought me to this fading moped parked outside a local pub favorite. With the owner no where to be seen, the cracked leather seat and rusting metal frame are the only things to tell me of its apparently long history. What the story is actually left to the imagination of the viewer. This image, titled "Late Night Ride", reminds me of a Birmingham that enjoys having a good time in a diverse cultural scene, both past and present.

"Trinkets of the Past" is an image of a shop after hours(the name of the store I currently cannot remember). This shop is full of little valuables that remind the interested shopper of their past experiences. Antiques and memoribilia shops such as this are what keep the history of the average American life in a Pleasantville-like Birmingham alive.