Here’s another shot from Grand Central.  I was a bit disorientated because I have been up on this balcony on the East side of the station many times.  It always used to be just an open space with people milling around and taking pictures just like this one.  It is an Apple Store now.  As soon as you walk up the stairs, there is a greeter asking if you need help.  Things change, I guess.  A very long time ago Kodak used most of the wall behind me for a giant Kodachrome image.  Now Kodak is bankrupt and Apple is in charge.  Interesting.

Sorry, it’s been a while. /  I took the Metro North train from New Haven to New York on Friday.  I could have taken Amtrak from Springfield, but it goes into Penn Station and I prefer Grand Central.  I arranged to arrive with time to spare, so I had some Cotuits and a pan roast at the Oyster Bar. / Just after my Kickstarter page went up, Zoe Crossland from Columbia University contacted me about coming down to give a seminar on the Willard suitcases project.  She connected me with Brian Boyd who set it all up, and at 5.30 I was sitting in a room with a great group of faculty and students from the anthropology and archeology departments.  I was hoping for lots of feedback and dialogue and wasn’t disappointed.  I showed selected photos from what I have done so far and we had a great discussion. / Had a very productive day at the museum last Thursday and will be back shooting in the next few days.

I was in Poughkeepsie on Tuesday photographing at the recently closed Hudson River Psychiatric Center.  I have been there many times and it was a bit sad to know that the facility was closing. / When I was shooting shuttered asylum buildings for my earlier projects, they were all from the 19th century.  Those buildings and their contents came from such a markedly different time which was part of the reason it was such compelling work for me. When I was thinking about my photographs from Tuesday I realized that in the future, someone will look at this photo and have the same feeling.  To our eyes, this isn’t such an unusual scene; fifty from now it will seem truly exotic.

This is Eleanor G’s large trunk.  It is one of the few cases in the collection that is unwrapped.  I have posted some of her other cases before.  I have edited the photos in this post quite tightly; there are well over 20 that I will eventually use, but due to time and space limitations, I’ll show just a few.

This is a classic footlocker design with a removable top shelf.

I think she used this calendar notebook as a Christmas or birthday book.  You can read what seems like a list presents she either gave or wanted to give to people.

Eleanor sewed a lot.  Here is a section of a pattern.

Above is some of the wrapping of the items in the bottom of the case.

These two movie ticket stubs were the only things in this little red clutch purse.

I like the design of this little vanity.  The use of the stars is especially tasteful.

The little lavender fabric button below the pills is such a lovely color.  These items were inside the vanity.

This is a closeup of a huge roll of wrapping paper that really got to me.  I so wanted to take the outer seal off to look at a whole sheet, but it was taped on and I was worried about ruining it.

The bottom of the trunk was full of letters to Eleanor.  She clearly had saved these from her life outside of Willard.  At first I thought the address on the bottom right envelope said “White House”, but as I enlarged the writing, it looked more like “White Home”.  I’m not sure if it was a residential facility or just an apartment house. (Early on in this project, an interesting fellow from somewhere out west was researching some of the materials and came up with some really cool historical links.  Tom, if you are still following, I’d love to hear from you.)

I plan to be back at the museum on Thursday to shoot more cases.  An tomorrow I will be at the recently closed Hudson River Psychiatric Center shooting some interiors.  Thanks for following this project.

]]> http://joncrispin.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/willard-suitcase-12/feed/ 37 joncrispin http://joncrispin.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/pinball/ http://joncrispin.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/pinball/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:16:34 +0000 joncrispin http://joncrispin.wordpress.com/?p=1142 ]]>

I started playing pinball at  Gabby Avenue News in Meadville when I was in junior high.  Almost every morning before school I would try to get in a few games before dashing off to homeroom.  After that, I played mostly at the College Pizza Villa on North Main Street.  When I got to Wittenberg, I was happy to see that there were 4 or 5 machines in the basement of the student union.  To say the least, I was a regular down there.  With the advent of video games, the popularity of pinball faded, and the machines that were being made we not so interesting to me.  They were way too complicated with multiple levels and lots of ramps and extra bells and whistles.  For me, the heyday of the pins was from the mid 60s to the mid 70s. /  Peter has always been interested in my  younger days and he loves to hear me tell stories about growing up in Meadville.  He especially liked the pinball related anecdotes.  /  Some time ago my brother got a machine for his basement.  It is made by Stern and is the Elvis model.  It is one of the later designs, and initially it didn’t interest me so much.  But whenever we would visit, Pete would head down and spend lots of time playing.  Eventually I became hooked and we now play quite a bit together.  Because of his CP, he plays both flippers with his right hand, and he is amazing good.  /  Union doesn’t regularly have any machines, but during special weekend events they bring in one or two that are set up to play for free.  Cristine and I were visiting him yesterday and he and I went over to Reamer and played this one.  Like the Elvis game, it is of the modern variety with way too much going on, but as you can see in the high score list, I totally killed it.  Score inflation has gotten out of hand though; over a billion points is just wrong.  At some point during my big game, Carlene Carter’s “Every Little Thing” started playing and after we were done, I was surprised to see in the credits that the female voice that pops up on occasion was hers.  Weird, but I went to iTunes today and bought the song.

In many ways Pearl is a true retriever.  She is not obsessed with balls or sticks but she really loves her bowl.  Since she was young she would eat and then pick it up and carry it around the house.  We never know where it will end up, and sometimes in the morning it is a pain to have to look for it.  About a year ago, I began to make her go find it before I would feed her.  She is mostly good at it, but sometimes she brings me one of her stuffed animals instead.  But she has figured out that bringing me the bowl means she gets to eat so there is some incentive for her.  The only problem is that at random times throughout the day she will get the bowl and carry it around expecting a meal.  I can mostly ignore it, but once in a great while I succumb to her cuteness and give in.

Cris dropped me off in Harrisburg where my good pal Peter Carroll picked me up on Friday morning.  We drove down to DC to spend some time with his family.  On our way we stopped in Dillsburg, PA at a great diner for a bite to eat.  Peter and I have travelled together so many times, and it is always fun.  He got this little GoPro video camera recently and has been goofing around with it. It also takes amazing stills.

Over the years we have taken so many goofy pictures of each other.  Here’s another one.  We didn’t try any of the cakes in the case, but I was sorely tempted.

When Cris and I drove to South Carolina this year we left home late in the day and drove through the night as we usually do.  We always joke about the IHOP-Waffle House line and how it mostly mirrors the Mason-Dixon line.  The Waffle House breakfasts can be a bit on the greasy side, but there isn’t much choice on I-95.  We were amazed to find an IHOP near Florence, SC so we stopped and ate at around 6.oo am.  We got back on the road and a bit later we stopped for gas.  We laughed because it was the same exit where we ate at a Waffle House last year.  The sun had just broken through the clouds and the building looked great in the morning light.

Sometimes I get a bit blocked up when I think about writing on this blog.  Since the suitcases project has garnered so much attention, and with all the new subscribers, I sometimes feel a bit self-conscious.  It is something I fight against, but in the last week I have been suffering from a bit of “Karma Congestion” as my friend Alex would call it.  The easiest way for me to get back into it is to post something that makes me really happy.

When I was shooting the UMASS Fenway game last week, I was surprised and really glad to see my son Peter’s great friend Tommy.  He and Pete have known each other since middle school and he is one of the nicest people around.  This picture says just about all you need to know about him.  Such a treat to run into him in such an unexpected place.

]]> http://joncrispin.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/tommy/feed/ 6 joncrispin http://joncrispin.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/willard-suitcase-11/ http://joncrispin.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/willard-suitcase-11/#comments Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:22:30 +0000 joncrispin http://joncrispin.wordpress.com/?p=1113 ]]>

This suitcase belonged to Floyd H.  It is one of the many empty cases that are in the collection.

When I first started on this project, my plan was to shoot only cases that had something in them.

As the work has developed though, I am finding that there is a segment of my backers that are as interested in the cases themselves as the contents.

So I will make an attempt to include as many of these suitcases as I can, since even when empty they tell a lot about the people who owned them.

Floyd’s case did have this tag in it, and I believe it is the original from when he was admitted.  I am still struggling with the name issue, and regretfully have made the decision to obscure his surname via photoshop.  Aside from the legal issues, this causes a huge problem for me, as I don’t believe in manipulating the content of photographs.  This opens a major can of worms, and I am guessing that I will get response from both sides of the issue, but as of now, I find it necessary.  I will say though that as a rule, I never mess around with the content of these images, and only will do so when it comes down to the identification of the residents.