21-OCT-2006
Glimpsing the past, Bodie State Historic Park, California, 2006
There are very few places where a photographer can make an image that takes the viewer directly into the past. Bodie, carefully preserved in a state of “arrested decay,” is one of those places. We had a unique opportunity to shoot in this ghost town from dawn to dusk. This image was made early in the morning in strong sidelight. Bodie died in the 1940s, yet its power lines are still in place. Glinting in the sun, these wires lend an authenticity to the scene that would be missing if they were not there. This scene is exactly what a miner returning to his drafty frame home after a night shift would have viewed. Each of these buildings still contains whatever furnishings might have been left behind when the town died and its population moved away. Once again, I use a spot meter to expose for the highlights, letting the rest of the image fade into the shadow of the past.
21-OCT-2006
Ghostly dream, Bodie State Historical Park, California, 2006
This image combines reflection and reality to convey dream like fantasy. I pressed my lens against the front window of a long abandoned house in the Bodie ghost town, and exposed for the light coming in from a side window. Apparently there must have been some space between my lens and the glass of the window because haunting reflections showing other buildings are superimposed on the brownish wallpaper inside of this room. The resulting image is a ghostly dream, a vision of past and present that goes right to the imagination of the viewer. It is an image I had never planned to make. It was, in fact, made for me by pure chance. I will be glad to accept it, however.
21-OCT-2006
Siding, Bodie State Historical Park, California, 2006
The weeds lap at the siding of this decaying structure in the Bodie ghost town. The early morning sun defines the texture and nature of the crude wooden planks that have been keeping the snow and rain out for the last 100 years. I only show part of the house – by combining a few boards with a single window that’s filled with wire mesh to keep intruders out, I’ve tried to express the essence of this place.
21-OCT-2006
The face in the window, Bodie Historical Park, California, 2006
I was first drawn to this scene because of the ghostly effect the wavy window glass gave to the old buildings in the distance, and the symbolism of the empty frame on the wall next to it. As I was framing the shot, a shadowy face of an Asian woman suddenly appeared in that stained and ghostly window. I made this image just before she disappeared. I recognized her as a fellow photographer – a woman unknowingly standing in for one of those restless spirits that some say still inhabit this ghost town. History tells us that several hundred Asian people actually worked in the Bodie mines in the 1880s, and this house was in the very area where they lived. For me, it was a happy accident. Her ghostly face adds much meaning to this image, no matter how we may choose to interpret it.
21-OCT-2006
Coffee display, Bodie Historical Park, California, 2006
Shooting through the window of the old general store in the Bodie ghost town, I zoomed in on this flaking, highly decorative 19th century coffee display. It looks very much like a Roman funerary painting, an appropriate symbol for a long dead town. Time has dealt with it painted surface harshly, disfiguring its beauty, and making it into a hauntingly incongruous ruin. My image of it is just as haunted.
21-OCT-2006
Dusk, Bodie Historical Park, California, 2006
The hills just to the west of this old ghost town turn gold at sunset. These golden hills are in the western facing windows of buildings such as this one, providing a set of hauntingly illuminated rooms in empty houses. I include the two privies in the foreground of this house to add a sense of depth, as well as making the point that many of Bodie’s residents did without plumbing.
21-OCT-2006
Nightfall, Bodie Historical Park, California, 2006
A closer view of one of Bodie’s abandoned homes, incongruously brought to life by the reflected golden glow in its windows. The broken picket fence, no doubt once painted white, bears witness to the relentless effect of time and weather on this ghost town. The California Park system does not repair such damage. They simply do whatever they can to maintain it in its present state.
21-OCT-2006
Cain Residence, Bodie Historical Park, California, 2006
The most elegant home in the Bodie ghost town belonged to J.S. Cain. While most doors in Bodie are rustic, his door reflects a degree of elegance – including a glass transom and an overhanging portico to keep the snow off the heads of guests and residents alike. I photographed it at sunset, when the transom turned gold. It almost seems as if Mr. Cain is at home, awaiting his visitors.