These two photos of my home town were taken almost 40 years apart. I took the top photo in 1973 and the bottom one in February 2012 during a visit back home. It's really amazing how little the buildings have changed during that time.
a sobering image of the passage of time and how it affects everything it touches. nothing more graphic than this comparison of b&w vs color! i also agree that the images on their own would not be as interesting if they were shown separately. a great story, imo!! shu
kchristian
10-Jun-2012 00:59
... Oh, I forgot to mention, the stop signs are all 4-way stops. -- Ken
kchristian
10-Jun-2012 00:16
Paul & Najinksy, thank you for your comments. Times are definitely tougher there in 2012 than they were in 1973. Click on the "view map" link above. The pin on the map is roughly where I was standing when I took both photos, facing NW on W Market Street. If you'll look to the left, you'll see a North/South road labeled "S 2nd St." In 1973 this was US Hwy 45, the major North/South road in the area. It was a 2-lane road with several traffic lights where it passed through town, and travelers on the road would often stop and spend money in the local stores. Now pan a ways to the left until you see Hwy 45 today (for some reason it is mislabeled on this map as "US Route 45 in Illinois." This is no where near Illinois!) The new Hwy 45 is a four-lane bypass -- and that is exactly what it does, bypass the town, taking customers out of the area. That -- and the overall downturn in the economy -- have caused most of the businesses and industry in the area to dry up and go away. And the arrival of Walmart has also caused many more of the mom and pop stores that existed here in 1973 to go out of business. The traffic lights have been replaced with traffic signs probably because they are cheaper to install and maintain. I guess that's the price of progress! -- Ken
This is a totally fascinating submission. I've been studying it for a while and I could easily continue much longer. I'm having all manner of fake Sherlock Holmes moments just considering the questions posed. The change from lights to a stop sign gives a clue that the crossing traffic is generally the busier. This seems to be confirmed in the 1973 version, yet this traffic is absent in 2012, why? Is it a sign of the times (where I live, traffic has increased 20x in 20 years), or perhaps the photographer simply waited until the cars passed before capturing, or maybe a different time of day. But the shadows show it was a similar time on both occasions, so what was the time? Many roads in this region run NS or WE, but many churches are aligned to compass points, so assuming that is the case here, the (Baptist?) church would indicate this road is running slightly NNE-SSW crossed by WSW-ENE, which in February puts the time of day when, around 3PM? Further it means those cars are on the road to memphis, which seems strange at 3 in the afternoon.
The real take holmes for me is, neither shot alone would have made my favourites list, yet put together with the added dimension of time, they become quite fascinating.
