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 hard rain outside a cafe, in the Italian part of St. Louis called the “The Hill.”

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.

St. Gabriel Catholic Church fish fry,  south St. Louis, by Erik M. Lunsford

Good words to live by, and by the way, I’m falling madly in love with slide film color. It convinced me to re-review my Miguel Rio Branco collection. Shot this on the M6 with Provia 100F.

Photo Editor’s Desk, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, by Erik M. Lunsford

This is the desk of my photo editor, Larry Coyne. I always wondered as an intern what the desks and offices looked like of those who I sent my portfolio, in hopes that it would land front and center on the desk for willing eyes. If you’ve sent your portfolio to the Post-Dispatch, here’s where it goes.  This photograph doesn’t show the handful of portfolios from souls who still send their work hoping for a spot on staff or as an intern. Unfortunately, the paper canceled the photo internship due to budget. How anyone is supposed to learn in photojournalism these days other than massive amounts of self-motivation is beyond me.

fatal car crash, north St. Louis City, photo by Erik M. Lunsford