Down the Road

Photographs and stories by Jim Grey

Since 2007

Construction at North and Maple

Jim Grey
6 comments on Construction at North and Maple
1 minute
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When you test as many old cameras as I do, you tend to shoot the same subjects a lot. But this one kept changing — because it was being built.

Construction
Nikon N90s, 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6G AF Nikkor, Agfa CT Precisa (x-1/2006, xpro)

This was going to be apartments and retail spaces, and it filled an entire city block in downtown Fishers.

North and Maple
Minolta Hi-Matic 7, Kodak Tri-X 400

The views are all a little different even though I stood at the same place to make these photos. Focal length, film, and available light all differed.

North and Maple
Olympus OM-1, 50mm f/3.5 Zuiko Auto-Macro, Kodak Gold 200

As you can see, construction was well along on that last shot. I’ll bet it’s completed now. But I don’t work over that way anymore so this is all you get!

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Comments

6 responses to “Construction at North and Maple”

  1. Dan James Avatar
    Dan James

    The world around is so much better documented than any time previously in history, with Google’s Street View project (which we use extensively in my day job to explore how developments and properties have changed in the last 10 years or so) and the vast amount of personal photographs taken. I guess the challenge would be collating them into a logical order. I believe with Google Maps you can add your own photos of places. I know over here in England, Historic England, who keep the register of Listed Buildings, have an “Enrich The List” project where anyone can add photos of Listed Buildings. https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/enrich-the-list/

    Jim how do you organise your own photos of the same place, do you use geo data, tagging by street name or something else?

    It’s funny when you take many photos of the same place, how your memory of the place can be engrained as a photo you took 1, 3, 5 years ago, rather than how it looks now, even if you’ve visited again since.

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      I don’t organize my photos of the same place, unfortunately. I have to remember them and know about when I took them. I’m getting better at naming them on Flickr so I can find them.

      As I revisit the old roads I’ve traveled in the past I’m starting to build quite a set of then-and-now photos. My first road trips were in 2006!

      Reply
      1. Dan James Avatar
        Dan James

        Have you ever thought of documenting a certain place more regularly? Say going past the same building and photographing it every month for two years or something, as a specific project from the outset, rather than trying to find and gather together pictures of the same places afterwards like you’ve done in this post?

        I remember seeing a documentary on a photographer a while ago and during his later years he photographed a small tree at the end of his garden through the seasons, making dozens, perhaps hundreds of images that documented the life of this one humble little tree.

        I kind of like the idea not only of documenting how something changes, but also seeing how our feelings and moods change each time we go to photograph the same thing, and consequently how different (or not) the images come out.

        Reply
        1. Jim Grey Avatar
          Jim Grey

          I *have* thought about it. It would be a major commitment, though. I lived near one commercial intersection in Indianapolis for 25 years and watched it change dramatically with time. I photographed it here and there as I tested old cameras but it would have been so interesting to go over there every 6 months or something and make the same 50 photographs documenting it over those years. What an interesting record that would be. Here’s a post I made with some of the photos I have taken over there.

          https://blog.jimgrey.net/2014/02/12/documenting-the-rapidly-changing-built-environment/

          A blog I used to follow that has since gone defunct was from a fellow in Toronto who found a cache of documentary photographs some fellow made of the county surrounding the city. The blogger made it his mission to rephotograph every place to show the then and now. It was fascinating!

          Reply
  2. analogphotobug Avatar
    analogphotobug

    We have as lot of this ‘mixed use’ construction in the Denver Area. So much that there is now a backlash against increasing housing densities (in many cases without providing parking).

    And to comment on the comments, I do document locations, dates and times. But I do it the o;d fashioned way, with a photo notebook.

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      Funny you should mention parking as Fishers was having some trouble with that very thing last year. Apartment dwellers weren’t parking in the provided garages but instead using up street spaces. So the city posted signs banning parking from 3 to 6 am on the streets. Really ticked people off!

      Reply

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