Niedermeyer in snow

I think I was initially attracted by the graceful curve of the stairway to the old Niedermeyer Hotel.  The interplay between the rigid linearity of the iron handrail and the delicate, playful curvature of the concrete forms flanking the edges was something that demanded my attention.  I've tried to photograph this stairway before, but was unable to do it any justice until it was nearly covered in snow. 

Broadway Maple Tree--Different Vision

I've been scanning some images from last year, trying to understand what I was doing at that time, and why.  This was shot with my Mamiya 645, probably handheld, using my 80mm f 1.9 lens and some Ilford Delta.  It is the same patriarchal maple tree on Broadway that I blogged about back in February of this year.  The silhouetted branch is at the tenuous edge of sharpness....beyond that everything else is out of focus.  I find something very poetic and haiku-ish about this image...even more so than the last image I posted.  The lack of perfect sharpness, the curved, gnarled shape of the branch, the black sky full of flying snow.  It was a poetic scene...but I am uncertain if the sense of mystery and the ephemeral nature of the moment are adequately conveyed by the image.  I think I am searching for an understanding of the inverse relationship between technical mastery and poetic attainment.  In other words, it seems that a soft, gesture of an image can sometimes speak volumes, while a tack sharp paradigm of technical skill will generally have little of importance to say.

Crown Point in snow

I went out for a walk in tonight's snow, which I soon discovered had a unique character unlike any of the snows we've had so far this season.  It was a wet, sticky snow that quickly attached itself to tree branches, the sides of cars, edges and protruberances.  It didn't settle on things so much as it adhered to things.  I didn't get very far out of my neighborhood tonight, but I found this image up on Crown Point.

Broadway Maple Tree

An arboreal matriarch (or patriarch) of the neighborhood, this maple tree is surely as old as the stretch of Broadway on which it grows.  Just west of downtown on Broadway. 

KOPN

The red neon of the KOPN radio station on Broadway, during a January snowstorm in Columbia.

Utility Pole in blizzard

I posted a color version of this image on my Missouri-In-Color blog last week...I found the unearthly green of the streetlight a beautiful counterpoint to the pink of the night sky during the snowstorm.  I think I was "borrowing" from a photograph by Luc Delahaye...a night shot of some Russian workers waiting for a bus, softly illuminated by the tungsten blue of a streetlight on a very lonely, snowcovered road.  You can find it here http://andrewconroy.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/luc-delahaye-winterreise/winterresise_1/ or in Delahaye's book, Winterreise, documenting a trip through Russia during the winter of 2000/2001.  As T.S. Eliot said in Sacred Wood, "Immature poets imitate; Mature poets steal."

Lost car

I found this car when I was out in the blizzard last week.  It reminded me of finding a lost, half-buried member of Shackleton's crew, or some similarly lost and mysterious object.

Hitt and Locust

The intersection of Hitt and Locust streets, downtown Columbia, during one of 2011's many snows.  This is a vantage point I have used in the past, back when University Market was on the opposite corner, selling beer and overpriced groceries to people in the neighborhood.  On a snowy night, this view reminds me of something from a Maxim Gorky novel.

D&H Drugstore, during a blizzard

D&H Drugstore, during the blizzard that swept through Columbia last night.  Bereft of customers and any sign of a parking lot, this reminds me of a Wallace Stevens poem I once read. 

Wabash Station, Tenth Street

Cardinal Points in a Snowstorm-South

Looking south down Eighth Street, towards Jesse Hall, during the snowstorm on Wednesday, January 19th, 2011.  I took four photos from the intersection of Eighth and Locust streets, one for each cardinal direction. 

Cardinal Points in a Snowstorm-East

Looking east up Locust Street, towards central downtown Columbia, on the evening of Wednesday, January 19th, 2011.

Cardinal Points in a Snowstorm-North

Looking north up Eighth Street during the snowstorm on January 19th, 2011. 

Mosque in Snow

Last night's snowstorm, from the corner of Fifth and Locust.

Column

A winter storm on the Francis Quadrangle.  Love or hate them, it is hard to photograph the columns in a non-postcard fashion.  This is an attempt.

Subaru

This was taken at the end of a snowy walk on a February night, 2010.  It has become one of my favorites, probably because it represents a new way of seeing.  This is not the kind of image I usually make on a winter's night...I generally don't do much work in domestic neighborhoods, and I don't usually look for or find this kind of scene.  I'm glad that I found this one.

Ice on Parkway Avenue

Another image taken on East Parkway, near the library.  This was just after an ice storm in December...very difficult setting up a tripod.  I was initially attracted by the weblike, labyrinthine pattern in the branches around the street lamp.  Later, after printing, I also began to enjoy the subtlety of the tire tracks across the ice.

Walking home, Parkway

I had walked past this lamppost and tree, on my way home,  dozens of times before I found a way to photograph it.