Category: black and white

Olde Town, WA. The Name

What is “Olde Town, WA”? It is an imaginary place, place with no people in the streets, place that is forgotten by people and ready to disappear as a mirage in a desert. It is a still capture in time of that place as it vanishes in front of our eyes.

I did not want this project to be about any specific town. At first, I simply called it Old Town. But I felt like this town deserves its place on the map, thus I’ve made the name more formal “Old Town, WA”. That’s how any town would be listed in US, with state abbreviation.

Then I added ‘e’ at the end of Old for two reasons. First this make it feel even older, that’s how it would probably be spelled ages ago and it closer to “older”. Second reason is more practical. Turns out that there is already a town in Washington called Old Town and an imaginary town better not match any real town name.

Corner of W Main St and 3rd St Corner of W Main St and 3rd St

Olde Town, WA. The Beginning

since it loves us
and forgives everything,
why was it abandoned forever?
Lyubov Sirota

What an exciting moment start of a new project. That is of cause when you know you start it. This project has begun before I knew it…

I’ve been traveling a lot to an area in the Eastern Washington called Palouse. This area offers really beautiful landscapes with rolling hills and patches of fields. Some call it American Toscana. While looking for beautiful landscapes to photograph I was driving thru small towns in this area and sometimes stopping, looking around and photographing of cause. Over time collection of these photographs grew and I was not sure why I was taking those photograph and what to do with them.

Riding from Seattle (where I live) to Palouse is a bliss – 4 hour drive across Washington state from West to East at about 70 miles per hour. There are quite a few towns you pass by on the way there. I used to drive thru them without ever stopping. Except once I travelled with a fellow photographer who wanted to get a coffee and we stopped in Ellensburg. Ellensburg turned out to be an interesting town, its historic center had a lot of old buildings. While walking its streets I realized that this is what attracted me in all other towns. The historic centers of many towns in Central and Eastern Washington look very old. And it is not like they are preserved for a history. They look abandoned like orphan children, they want some attention but don’t get it. While passing thru some of them I would find their streets empty almost like ghost towns. Some towns are slowly disappearing. In others people for some reason have moved away from their historic centers.

Once I noticed this pattern I begun to stop in every town on my way and capture those old town centers in their vanishing act. And thus the project “Olde Town, WA” was born.

Antiques Antiques

Tunnel View in Rain

Tunnel View in Rain

During my last trip to Yosemite the valley was both unbelievably beautiful and crowded. On the second day when we went to Tunnel View during midday, it was packed, we could not find a parking spot. Then the rain started and washed away all the tourists and photographers. But the rain is one of the best weather to photograph. Clouds create drama, light is constantly changing, rain adds depth and mist starts rising from ground heat up by the sun earlier. Just watching the scene changing continuously right in front of your eyes is awe-inspiring.

Tunnel View at Sunset

Tunnel View at Sunset

I was on a trip to Yosemite last week. Now I’m back home and started working thru the photographs that I took on the trip.We were very lucky – the sky was gorgeous three out of four days we spent in Yosemite.

Here is a classic "Tunnel View" of Yosemite valley. This photograph was taken at sunset on the first day of our trip.

I find myself constantly drawn to black-and-white photography. This image is a great example of where black-and-white look great (and better than color one) for my taste.