Looking at my flickr account, I realize that I haven't posted anything since April 13, 2008. That's owing to a few reasons.1. My camera was broken for a time, after taking six, equidistant bounces across the Record Exchange parking lot. After repair (executed in Honduras? Pakistan? Kokomo, IN?), the camera's still not fully, consistently operational, a problem that'll be dealt with shortly.
2. I have a second camera, but don't like it. My theory is that the $250 price-point on electronics is the one at which you begin to make mistakes.
3. All my photos of a recent vintage have been of desolate, abandoned, ravished places. To look at my photo set, you'd think that St. Louis has little more than: half-demolished industries and youth soccer players of color. As a civic-minded person, this imbalance has vexed me.
And 4. Because of the pressure of posting flickr photo #1,000 (pressure? by whom? how do I imagine these things?), I simply sat at photo #999 until the perfect image came along. Which it didn't, because of item #1 above. Yow. Painful.
Anyway, after combing the archives, I've decided to post up a little piece that reminds me of item #3. After walking around the (edit:) St. Louis Southwestern Freight Depot a few months back, I came across a group of gentlemen, who seemed to be ambling from the nearest St. Louis City Correctional Department facility, just up Broadway. After clutching my gear a bit tighter, I offered a "hello" and they offered the opportunity for a photo. I didn't sense that I had a choice, per se, so "click, click" went the camera. Two shots. Then outta there.
I have a feeling I've told this story on this blog before. I suppose I could check. But I won't. I'll simply post. Here. And at flickr.
Photo #1,000. Done. Whew.
4 Comments:
That shot looks more like East Saint Louis than the Railway Exchange. Surely around Macy's, you wouldn't have to worry about getting your camera snatched, would you?
By 
, at
6:13 PM
Remind me of the location of the nearest Macy's to East Saint...
By 
Thomas Crone, at
7:11 PM
Macy's at 6th and Olive is a mile, maybe two from ESL. Yup.
Those guys in the picture look more like they're standing on a corner in Wood River, not anywhere near the Railway Exchange.
By , at
6:39 PM
My usual policy on comments to allow anonymous posters a couple chances to get in their shots before cutting things off.
In this case, we're both wrong and here's my half of the problem: I was thinking "Railway Exchange" when typing in the name of the building, when it's actually the St. Louis Southwestern Freight Depot and/or the Cotton Belt Freight Depot. I'll reflect that above. This location's just north of there, between Broadway on the west and the river wall on the east.
You're wrong in your various insinuations that the shot's from Wood River or East Saint, and that I grow afraid near Macy's.
End result: I was wrong on a building name; and you're still an anonymous dillweed.
By Thomas Crone, at
8:18 AM