131 | Avenida Revolución

1979 | Tijuana, Baja California

1979 | Tijuana, Baja California

I had been back from a long road trip down the length of Mexico for a few months, and I really began missing the place. Nothing was in the way though, from my home in San Diego; a short trip on the light rail and a walk across the border would take me to a different country, nearby but only a little bit familar.

Around this time, the entire main street was being dug up curb to curb along with many of the sidewalks, and new services were being installed. In the peacetime rubble, for the persistent and patient shoppers, it was business almost-as-usual, but the sight of it was a special adventure for me, requiring many views and re-views over the next year.

130 | In Stride

2021 | San Diego

2021 | San Diego

I had been thinking about what sort of arc this blog would follow as I got further along in the investigation of my archive. I had an inkling that I would begin to post new pictures from my current activity when that time came. Having brought out some familiar and new-to-me work, I feel that the original intention is being followed with some success.

But here is a note from just last week – focusing on refining troublesome elements in my novice rowing stroke and having no intention to make pictures of any kind, I was walking from my car and setting my phone into its waterproof bag to stow in my boat. But I saw this scene building and made two frames.

It seems that all that work in my archive has also sharpened my attention to the present; there’s a pretty good street photographer inside me still.

128 | Finding a Fit

1979 | Portland, Oregon

1979 | Portland, Oregon

I’m finding a great many pictures in the archive which are odd in some way, perhaps even anomalous to the general threads of my work over the years. But they have been consistently intriguing and have some staying power, so they have recently formed for me a significant thread of their own. Once two or more of these were gathered together, another monograph came into shape…and the title came to me very clearly and quickly.

▷ So it’s worth repeating to myself here (and to my readers) that I remember one of the best things I heard from Garry Winogrand was, “Some pictures are different, but when you try to throw them away, they stick to your hand.”

126 | Field Trip

1986 | View North up Fifth Avenue, San Diego

1986 | View North up Fifth Avenue, San Diego

I led the view camera class out into the wild. I encouraged the students listen to Nick Nixon and get up high to let the larger cameras do the work, so I took that advice. But Peter Boots had his own ideas, and he set up down there at the intersection.

124 | Living Buildings

1985 | Union-Tribune Building, San Diego

1985 | Union-Tribune Building, San Diego

Even in smaller cities, it’s not so easy to pick out individual characters in the buildingscapes. But I have learned that new structures going up, while they may obscure older ones from certain vantage points, offer new views of the old friends, and that my pictures, made among losses and changes, can grow along with the city.

Of course I must note here that the Horton Plaza shopping mall, which opened to much fanfare in 1985 and whose mezzanine supported this fine view, has already been demolished in favor of a new office and retail configuration.

I encourage you to find a copy of John Szarkowski’s The Idea of Louis Sullivan, an exemplary tracking of the works of the great architect through big changes in the city of Chicago.

Szarkowski was not well known for the very fine pictures of his own, which he set aside for his curatorial career – finding, encouraging, and exhibiting the works of many grateful photographers.

123 | Avalon (Continued)

2006 | Avalon, Santa Catalina Island

2006 | Avalon, Santa Catalina Island

I had been visiting Avalon since the early 1970’s, enjoying walks through the compact square-mile town and into the intentionally undeveloped remainder of the island. Just a few miles away from the coast and the gigantic sprawl of Los Angeles, the little village provided various delights within just a few steps – many of the lots are just eighteen feet wide.

In 2006, moments after I had committed to being more systematic in my survey of the town, I turned a corner and got this picture for the end of the series, long before the project had even gained its stride.