Closed Auto Dealerships

About a year ago, I noticed the huge number of auto dealerships that have closed, mainly because of the economy.  I saw them in Phoenix, and San Diego, but since I live in the Los Angeles area, that would be my subject–and there are plenty out there.

At first, I shot during the day taking a few digital scouting shots, but then realized there was more to this story.  The large swaths of land, especially in urban areas, now vacant, might not revert back to auto dealerships.  Once this land is redeveloped, urban car dealerships might become a rare breed.

I recently read that the average American car is the oldest it has ever been at 10 years–coincidentally the age of my own car.  The impact of thousands of jobs lost both locally and nationally, at the dealer level along with manufacturers and suppliers, prompted me to make a statement and I decided to shoot it with the 8×10 view camera.  It gave me highly detailed, but depressing images that are a sign of our times.  I never liked taking photos of homeless people for the same reason.

So I did that next logical step and decided to shoot them at twilight and at night–but still shooting it in 8×10.  Oddly, I have rarely shot 8×10 at night because of the physical and technical challenges and the long set up and exposure times.  Like anything else, when it works, it all seems worth it.

It started as a daunting task, carrying around the 35 pound camera and tripod at night, with my limited selection of lenses, but after the first few exposures, the project has started to gel.  When you set up an 8×10 camera on the street, it definitely attracts attention!

Many of my favorite contemporary photographers, including Stephen Shore, Joel Sternfeld, Andrew Moore and Joel Meyorwitz shoot 8×10, frequently in low light situations, and now I know why.  The tonality of the negatives is quite remarkable, so much that I can get color out of the urban sky at night and still have details in the light fixtures, like the one below.  There is still some light in the sky in this twilight shot that gives the pink cast on the building.

Normally, it is very difficult to shoot directly into a light source like this, but the simple prime (non-zoom) lens and the tonal scale of the 8×10 negative held all the detail.

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In this twilight shot, the “Showroom” door and “No Trespassing” sign together caught my attention.  The lush green foliage growing up through the asphalt shows that Mother Nature is trying to take this location back.

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The back of this dealership is actually a powder blue, with a mercury vapor lamp as the main light.  Note the gradation of blue in the sky and the faint light streak of an airplane flying by.  The texture in this image is quite remarkable enlarged.  Unfortunately, viewing these on a computer monitor at this resolution only give an inkling of what is there.

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This is a different view of the same building.  The deterioration happens quickly, even here in LA without the rain, snow and ice.  The subtle tones in the colors make the image.  Both this and the next shot are 30 minute exposures, to get the depth of field throughout the image.

This is my favorite image from this series to date because of the color and smooth tone.  It is a night shot, not twilight which it appears to be.  There is a single bare bulb in the back of the alley, just out of view.  There is a mercury vapor street lamp in the foreground, giving the green cast.  I liked this image, but had to shoot it over 3 different nights to get it the way I wanted.  For those who need to know, it is a half hour exposure at f45 with my 210mm G-Claron lens on Fuji NPL color negative film.

The local police stopped by during this exposure and questioned me.  As they got out of their cruiser, I told them I thought the alley was beautiful because of the light.  They looked at each other and gave me the look as though I was a bit crazy.  When I told them this is what I do, they drove off.  I didn’t mind, as it helped pass the time of the exposure…