Lens Is More

Category: Structure

  • Forgotten storefront, Tionesta, Pa.

    C. Thompson
    Yes, those are antlers.

    The point of the Route 6 tour was to be in places like this. It had people, and there was movement, but the empty main street was its character now. It’s a town, in Pennsylvania, on the way home. (2019)

  • Waiting on a cable car, San Francisco

    C. Thompson

    I wasn’t taking a cable car. I was a little lost, trying to find my way to some bar to meet some guy and I was stuck for a moment. I first noticed the cuffs on her jacket. (2003)

  • South Street, Philadelphia

    C. Thompson
    Near its bottom

    The 1500 block, where only the façade of the once-mighty Royal Theater remained. (ca. 1984)

  • Since 1900 in Malvern, Pa.

    C. Thompson
    Winter sun is tricky.

    I used to live in this little town back when I was 17. I was an apprentice at a nearby theater company, building sets, hanging stage lights, and growing up. There used to be industry here, and the fabled Main Line rumbles through on tracks not far outside the frame. It was almost entirely asleep when I lived there. It has since awoken with chic little stores for those in quilted barn jackets and Range Rovers who amble up and down King Street and return to little jewels like this. (2018)

  • Back alley, Erie, Pa.

    C. Thompson
    Perhaps the most colorful space in the city.

    I loaded up the Leica M4, the Nikkormat FTn and the Zeiss Ikon Ikonta 521/16 for a six-day tour of Pennsylvania, my home state. I had dozens of rolls of film — 35 mm, 120 rollfilm, color, B&W (which got most of the work), you name it. But sometimes a shot is just a shot; this was taken on my phone. (2019)

  • Heron Crest Studios, Aston, Pa.

    C. Thompson
    Trout to the left

    This blog was resurrected in part because of the yearlong project that involved scanning and cataloguing every photo I ever took. (It was supposed to be a three-month project, but, yeah.) It was all done here in Aston, Pa., down the road from where I used to live, at an artists’ studio complex. My neighbors in the converted mill were real artists. I am not.

    A year in this light.

    So, I spent my weekends in this room, from cold to heat to cold, from football to baseball, reliving my life. This was taken on the day I left. (2017)

  • Beachhead, Bretagne, France

    C. Thompson
    The spoils of war

    This is about five kilometers from the village of Cléden-Cap-Sizun, where my bride and her parents had rented a house for a couple days during our tour of the country’s northwest.  From here and on behind the lens, the beach slopes into la Baie des Trépassés, which translates to the Bay of the Deceased. That’s a WWII German gun turret behind our subject. (2017)

  • Winter waterfront, Toronto

    C. Thompson
    Around 5 or 10 below (F), it started to get a little brisk.

    (2000)

  • Barn and field, West Chester, Pa.

    C. Thompson

    (2018)

  • Hotel room, Hong Kong

    C. Thompson
    Turned into a pleasant evening, actually.

    (2015)