self-portrait noun
:a portrait of oneself made by oneself
Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary
When I have to write about and photograph myself;
it might be an indication that I have run out of ideas.
I can assure you that I have never taken a “selfie” and the only use I have for a cellphone is Goggle maps and the ability for my spouse to check on me, when I am in some abandoned Detroit creepy place.
As far as the running out of ideas comment, it is more than likely that I have run out of humans.
To put that statement in context, I live in the most southern town in Canada, population of 22,000 humans, 560 dogs and 866 cats. That we know of. One park and myriad acres of farmland punctuated with hundreds of greenhouse complex’s. So, it can get pretty quiet around these parts, especially early in the mornings, when the light presents all sorts of favourable opportunities.
Consequently, since the majority of the images I take are of landscapes, I generally always need something/someone to lead the viewers eye, what I call my prime point of interest. Well it just so happens I’ve got me and 10 seconds on my Pentax K1 timer to get the shot. So for fun, I have compiled a number of these images where a physical location caught my eye and I just needed to insert an object, in these instances it just happened to be me.
The first image obviously is an alley located on the main street of Kingsville. Many times I have driven past it recognizing the potential. Back lit, strong leading line and I believe the brick walls provide a feeling of strength/power, I refer to it as eye drive. But that is just me, someone fooling around with a camera. But I digress; so back to the image. To make use of the backlighting and to emphasize the leading line, I used a mini tripod to get the camera as close to the ground as possible. All around six in the morning. Did a few trial images and settled on one you see now. Some may opine that my images are under exposed or need this or that. For the record, it is just what interests me, for some inexplicable reason, I like most of my images to be dark and kinda gloomy.
The next image was again taken on the Kingsville main street. I spotted the umbrella display on the hotel veranda and thought what do I need in the image to capture the artistic efforts of the hotel staff. The image was taken again early in the morning to ensure no foot traffic and I took the photograph with my regular tripod set at waist level.
Even though Kingsville is quite small and somewhat isolated, I am quite fortunate that my house is located approximately a 45 minute drive from downtown Detroit. So weather permitting, I cross the border a couple times a month. These sojourns can lead me into an interesting dichotomy of locations. Grand museums to scary abandoned automotive factories. Detroit is actually quite fascinating, so much so, I am working on a blog solely on the city. I have included a few images from motor city, that hopefully provide the viewer with the range of photographic possibilities here and still remain within my self portrait theme
The first image below was taken at Highland Park. Which is adjacent to an abandoned Lincoln car plant and a well established artist community. This example of urban decay is quite common and is just a few minutes from the downtown core. For the record, downtown Detroit is, vibrant, clean, safe, in an re-bound and full of grand historic architecture.
The image also below is of the interior of the Gardiner building, built in 1928 and is well known in architectural circles for its bold art deco style. This is one of my favourite self portraits as I realized after the fact, the lady to the left was watching me as I took the shot.
Next up is my ground up shot of the the second floor of the famous Ford Piquette plant. This is the original
Ford plant which has remained on this location since 1904. A few blocks to the North, I venture into the abandoned Fisher body plant for a bit of peek a boo with Mr. Pentax.
The plant was constructed in 1919 and has been vacant since 1993. There is no sign of any one living here and it is rare to see homeless people anywhere in Detroit, unlike most American city’s.
Here I am again in Detroit, in a neighbourhood referred to as Mexican town. Observe one of those rare colour images, that I have not ruthlessly converted to monochrome. By the way, the hat I am wearing is a prop only worn when the shutter records my wanderings.
A few minutes from my residence is Point Pelee National Park, situated on the most southerly part of mainland Canada. Great place for cycling and kayaking. Having a tendency to be up early to catch the light or as in this image above, fog, no surprise there are no humans about.
Perhaps I should avoid using the dryer to dry my pants. I always loved the displays the ladies create at this local gift shop. Perhaps they are a little outdone by the Diego Rivera fresco at the Detroit Institute of Arts, with pensive me visually overwhelmed.
Fog is my friend. A mundane path and tree line becomes spooky and for some odd reason the hat just adds that nice little touch to the image on the left. The area I reside in, hosted the Tall Ships Festival a few years back and there it was, I guess you could call it my very first selfie. The vessel in the background is the Empire Sandy based out of Toronto, Canada.
I conclude with these final three images. The first was taken this summer at an abandoned quarry which is supposed to be off limits. I have ventured into this very haunting local on a number of occasions to collect enough images for a separate article. Sixth time in, I felt an image was required to document my salute to say bon voyage. No one has been in this place for a very long time, but every time I ventured in I always had the feeling I was being watched.
The last images are my first experiments with colourization and close up work. I included these as I wanted something different to end this article.
Hopefully I have succeeded in entertaining the readers for at least a few minutes.
Additional images reflective of my photographic tangents can be viewed at my fully encrypted website: Michael O’Hara Photography (oharaphoto.ca).
Thank you for looking.
Mio
from the lake