Maybe it’s the converging shapes or the peeling layers of history, this photograph of restoration at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church speaks of pure midwestern americana. Purchased shortly after World War II from the U.S. Army, St. Luke’s was quite literally moved from an Army post at Jefferson Barracks to its current spot in south St. Louis County. Nestled between adorable gingerbread-esque houses and unimaginative strip malls, the church continues to sustain itself sixty eight years later. It also, interestingly, is the church where my wife and I wed four years ago.

Residing St. Luke’s, St. Louis, Missouri, photograph by Erik Lunsford

There is a certain raw staccato rhythm to photographer Peter McCollough’s new blog, Seven Ways to Sunday.  The writing is unmolested, as if thoughts were arriving from connecting links directly from his mind. The photography collaborates with the words, as if they nourish each other through a form of mutual and exclusive dialogue. Tim Gruber, who kindly made mention of Peter’s blog a short while ago, could not have said it any wiser. This type of honest and open writing, if scattered into the wild, would agreeably make our communities that much richer. Here’s a recent quote from his latest post:

All the people become faceless in memory… reduced to an emotional or visual topography that you navigated for X hours; I walked here, I waited there, I squirmed this way for this photo of whomever. I probably took a picture of the War Rabbit and a child that ran in the paper the next day that made someone happy or embarrassed. Maybe his long lost father saw it and was ashamed. Maybe the kids at school ridiculed him. Maybe this child was staring at me as I worked and a few minutes later they cut their finger and will forever associate the two until we meet again. Maybe at a gas station in North Dakota and maybe they will hate me and they won’t be able to figure out how so. I do hope.

I do hope as well.

Top: Sophia’s Hill for Friday the 13th, photograph copyright Peter McCollough, used with permission.

I chose black and white for simplicity and consistency. Lately I have been learning towards it because it frees me from the color and graphic constraints that my mind constantly analyzes.  It lets me let go and play, since I have the bad habit of overanalyzing frames instead of actually shooting.  By combining a very simple piano piece by Kevin MacLeod and letting the piece extend a little longer than normal multimedia work, I hope to communicate a piece that is as much of St. Louis in the winter as my own emotional and behavioral response to it. Here’s the link to the same video, plus some very heartfelt comments from viewers, at our website, STLtoday.com

“I could feel the cold! So many of these pictures were untold stories, like the beautiful house with the furniture piled at the curb.What’s going on there? Thanks, Erik, for your observant eye’s view of the ordinary.”  – viewer and commenter Judy Stark.

Tire tracks in the snow, north St. Louis County, seen from Metrolink rail.