Peter J. Crowley

Fine Art Photographer

Archives for September 2008

Boarding in Albuquerque on The Southwest Chief

by // 4 Comments


This way to board. Reflecting on Albuquerque, stepping away from faces for this edition. This is from my Layered Life series. Some of the non portrait images can be found on this months Prints for People specials.

August Fifteenth and Sixteenth rolling towards Washington I meet Dane a poet on her way to read in Seattle with Jack McCarthy. The coincidence’s and community develop Dane’s good friend is a Quaker who I will meet at my daughters wedding, for the entire westward trip we have no internet except for a couple minutes just after I meet Dane. She shoots an email to her friend to see if she is going to Kirsten’s wedding? Two days later I get the answer as her friends father speaks at the wedding of how small the world is and how I met his daughters friend on the train. Dane introduces me to Jack’s poetry and my first I-Pod experience. I find it fitting that my first time is listening to poetry. Upon finding his website to link here I realize that I most likely photographed him at the 1997 National Poetry Slam Championship, “Voices from the Edge” held in Middletown Ct. Both of these poets are worth a listen for “Poetry like Bread” is for everyone [from the poem “Like You” by Roque Dalton,] published by Curbstone Press. So I’ve rambled here and I’ve rambled there introducing more of the characters from either side of the tracks, past and present.
enjoy pjc

Prints for the People

One more from Flagstaff for now

by // 10 Comments


After dinner Rees and I went for coffee where we met Wolf and Liberty for coffee and tea. We sat outside and I made this photograph in the wanning evening light. Talk of the state of the world the mix of youth and us older guys disappeared as we found common ground. Most of the people I spoke with whether they were old, young, right or left were uncomfortable with the countries direction. Many unsure of the direction or even who really was at the helm of the ship of state. Personal financial distractions, cultural differences and the constant bombardment of information/disinformation led to an underlying feeling of uneasiness.

August fourteen in Chicago I met Rick in the food court. Both of us going to Olympia to Sunday weddings, could we, are we soon to be relatives? No but coincidence continued to form the Amtrak community for the trip west. Cowboys, poets, exotic dancers, professors, scientists, college students, a petty officer from a tall ship all part of this cast. All sharing experience from Canada to Zimbabwe, all riding across this great nation concerned with what comes next.


I ponder youth naivety, age experience
a youthful sparkle in the eyes
Between here and there
A cynical haze clouds vision
Between here and there.
[excerpt of longer yet unfinished piece]


On the rails the mix worked very well. August 15th a day of poets and a story teller from North Dakota who regales us with of his and his parents, grandparents history of life in the northern plains. His details and colorful remembrances of the last century handed down oral history amaze me. The good and bad times, a high school football coach, teacher, farmer, traveler, veteran, I was too enthralled by his tales to photograph or tape his exploits, across the aisle from him was an older women who confirmed and added to the local history lesson. A station stop to stretch our legs and he was gone leaving us with the feeling of his easy laugh and of times gone by between here and there. His North Dakota slogan and his laugh rings in my memory “Forty below keeps the riff raff out.”
The Cascades and Washington, loss of my I-pod virginity to come. enjoy pjc

Seattle and beyond

Flagstaff smiles on me!

by // 1 Comment


At dinner this young women came in for a smoothie on her way to work. Cute hat fun smile I left the table to reflect her in the window of Mountain Oasis International Restaurant
Where the food was superb!


August 13th continues out of Albany after two and a half hours filled with conversation with a couple of college students, literature, arts and politics. Food and drink in Albany’s new station ten years prior the station was little more than a waiting room with candy and soda machines now a couple of stories of waiting space, shops, cafes, news stands, taxi stands. The bar and restaurant where I watched the playoffs and had a good meal now is a couple blocks away. Chugging out of Albany night falls fast. Across the aisle a retired nurse now a knitting artist looks at my work and suggests museums and parks to see in Chicago. The Amtrak community begins to form.


Rochester
Shapes and shadows in the night
Outlined, glowing by street lights
Some neon some bright
Just shiny shapes,shadows in the night
Train yards, factories quiet for now
No second, third shifts
Lights the inside
Dark shadows of industry
Just shapes in the night

Toledo at dawn August fourteenth coffee with Don who’s leaving the cold gated humanity of New England heading for Oregon. Me in my half window seat a partial view of the heartland. One eye opened one eye closed, on through Indiana a Surrey with a fringe on top. Beige is the color of America from Indiana to Montana [an orange barn] outside the urban areas everything is beige, sand, eggshell, off white whatever it is Middle America in B+W not quite middle gray a bit whiter. A little color in Gary, casinos, neon, billboards embedded between coal, coke and steel mills, some empty none working at full capacity. Still even the air seems beige. Next stop Chicago. enjoy pjc

Photographic Art Sunset on the industrial age