Hats and high society, Forest Park, St. Louis.

Channeling Martin Parr at the recent 21st Annual Hiram W. Leffingwell Awards Hat Luncheon in Forest Park. Editors felt this would be the perfect assignment given my addiction to hats. However, the Canons attracted too much attention and people mistook me for the hired event photographer, grabbing me by the arm for group portraits. About half way in I ditched the DSLRs and opted for the Canon G12 point and shoot. Off-kilt expressions and a dash of tension were the hopes given the inspiration of Parr’s excellent and recent St. Moritz work.

Illustrated menu, Rib America festival, downtown St. Louis

Tornado aftermath, Maryland Heights, Missouri.  Leica M6, Fuji Provia 100, 1/30 @ 2.8

A frame of slide film, held up to the light, has an effect like none other. In your hand you hold a tangible piece of reproduced reality. Like little worlds I sleeve them and store them, stash them and bind them into a catalog. When examined or scanned into the cloud of bits — now intangible like the majority of my digital photographs — a memory sprouts, seeded in the imperfect latticework grains of silver, and I vividly remember the pain a person experienced as she walked among the damaged remains of her home.  I remember the painting on the wall. It fell into a bed of insulation, one of a handful of possessions that survived the storm.

seeking solace, Kirkwood, Missouri.

I’m always on the lookout for images that take me away, at least for a minute, to another place. I see a thicket of birds amongst the prairie. It gives me comfort, peace, solace.  Think Sam Abell’s Seeing Gardens.

Lambert International Airport, St. Louis, Missouri.

Glen Jordan, the last person waiting for a flight in the Southwest terminal late Wednesday evening, awaits his bride from Chicago. He donned his best clothes with a trio of roses for a person he hasn’t yet met in person. The flight is delayed. He waits.

After the high school talk, Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri. Leica M6, Provia 100F

31 and counting.

Washington Park Cemetery cleanup, St. Louis, Missouri.

I had always seen this cemetery from the highway, located in the takeoff path from Lambert airport. It was dilapidated, overgrown, infested with mounds of trash, tires, parts of appliances, and broken headstones. At one point there was a police pursuit of a suspect in the cemetery. A tree line advanced over the years, swallowing generations of graves.  A Boy Scout troop and a Catholic parish descended to right the wrongs. It was an attempt to make holy what was a neglected home for those at rest.

Mark Enslin pulls a rotted chair from a grave site.

Scouts pile cut logs together.

Bruce Nicolson picks up and protects a bouquet of headstone flowers as he mows.

World’s Fair Park, Knoxville, Tennessee.

World’s Fair Park, Knoxville, Tennessee.