MSA O/N June 2024 - "The Beauty Of Decay"

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chuckroast

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This month's assignment is: The Beauty Of Decay

Let's see your images that show subjects that are in decay, failure, ruination, or broken down but are yet somehow beautiful or compelling. The important part isn't really the "decay". The important part - and the shooting challenge - is to find the beauty in what is otherwise ugly, falling apart, dilapidated, or tragic.

ProTip: This doesn't necessarily just have to be a physical thing. People, Places, and Things are all known to undergo decay.


No limit on subject matter or methods used as long as it adheres to the standard MSA guidelines below.



Monthly Shooting Assignment Guidelines
Here are the guidelines that a number of participants in the MSA put together over a number of cycles. They have been recently revised

MSA Guidelines

For first-timers, the following summary of standard procedures should help (I am indebted to Ken Nadvornick for putting most of this together, and not objecting when I proposed to re-use [aka borrow] it):

(1) Take note of the MSA assignment, which you will find inserted into the title of the thread.

(2a) For the NEW Category, take your photo(s) according to the assignment guidelines. You are expected to shoot something new rather than grabbing from your archives. The exposure must happen during the period of the current MSA theme - usually one month - and must of course be submitted during that period.

2(b) For the OLD Category, you can use thematically appropriate Photos that you have taken in the past.

2(c) For either the NEW Category or the OLD Category, photos must originate as something that is consistent with Photrio's Analogue only section principles - i.e. using traditional (non-digital) processes. Scans from prints, slides, or negatives are permitted, but any digital adjustments should be strictly limited to what would be acceptable in the Photrio analogue only galleries. Please be sure to label which Category (OLD or NEW) your submission belongs in. Film and exposure information plus any special technical information is also good.

(3) You can post your photo in the MSA Gallery (if you are a subscriber) or, you can host your photo elsewhere and link to it in the thread, or, you can post it as an attachment to a message in the thread and it will show as a clickable thumbnail.

(4) It's all for fun, there are no prizes, but at the end of the MSA, the previous winner who chose the theme will choose one photo that is the best photo that illustrates the theme and the photographer associated with that photo will be declared the "winner". Subject to the following, the "winner" will have the opportunity to choose a theme for the next MSA, and then choose a new winner from the submissions that follow.

Additional hints about uploading your photographs...

(6) How to upload if you are a Photrio subscriber: As a subscriber you can upload to the Photrio galleries. You perform the upload in the same way you would upload to the standard gallery, except you press the "'All subscriber galleries", you find a drop-down menu and press the Monthly Shooting Assignment, thats it.

(7) How to upload if you are NOT a Photrio subscriber: If you aren't a subscriber, you cannot upload to the APUG galleries. Instead, you'll need to attach your image to a post in this thread. Of course, it is a much better idea to subscribe instead.

(7) (For subscribers only) If you start out by uploading to the Monthly Shooting Assignment gallery, the system may not give you the chance to fill in the data fields that all the other galleries offer - i.e. to list the film and developer, location, and the other suggested information. If you like to list that information, just upload the photograph to a standard gallery, and then "edit" the upload. During the edit, you can change the gallery it is stored in - in this case to the Monthly Shooting Assignment gallery.

8) Most importantly, have fun!
 
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chuckroast

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Just to prime the pump, here's one of my own:

1717258494692.png
 

MattKing

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Good idea for a theme.
I may need to update the guidelines, because non-subscriber access to the galleries has changed a bit - I promise that I'll attend to that soon.
And I'll do my bit with the list of themes and sticky threads.
 

Kodachromeguy

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MattKing

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@Kodachromeguy ,
You are welcome to include a reference to your blog in the post, and even recommend that people look at certain blog posts, but we would ask that everybody's main contribution to these MSA threads be the posting of individual images. Direct links to those images are fine.
It is of course also fine to comment on the images posted - by yourself or others.
Posted with my MSA mini-moderator cap on - not my full size Moderator hat.
 

Kodachromeguy

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OH, I think I understand now.

Category: OLD. Warehouse, 5th Avenue, Faraday, Louisiana. June 2020 (approx. 100º F). GAF Versapan film pack film, Tachihara camera, 90mm ƒ/6.8 Schneider Angulon lens, GGr filter


20200618g_Warehouse_FifthAve_Ferriday_LA_VPan-GGr_resize.jpg
 

Kodachromeguy

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Category: OLD. Gas station, East 1st Street, Delhi, Louisiana (pronounced Del'-High). July, 2020. GAF Versapan pack film, Tahihara camera, 135mm ƒ/5.6 Caltar S-II lens, med. yellow filter.


20200704e_GasSta_E1st509_Delhi_LA_VPan-135mm-yellow_resize.jpg
 

Nicholas Lindan

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I wonder if it is possible to have an object that decays to something beautiful if the object were not beautiful to begin with.

With this month's assignment a sentence from Tolkien immediately came to mind: "Ithilien, the garden of Gondor now desolate kept still a dishevelled dryad loveliness."
 

Ivo Stunga

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I wonder if it is possible to have an object that decays to something beautiful if the object were not beautiful to begin with.
It'll probably be in the eye of the beholder, but to me it's not just possible, but what I'm after in plain utilitarian manufacturing plants that are made beautiful by light and composition.

And URBEX is probably the cause I'm shooting at all :smile:
 

Kodachromeguy

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How about some machinery?

Category: OLD. Morris Ice Company, South Commerce Street, Jackson, Mississippi. December 2019. Kodak Panatomic-X, Hasselblad 501CM camera, 50mm Distagon lens (tripod-mounted). The panels are made of slate.


20191214h_MorrisIceCo_CommerceSt_Jackson_MS_resize.jpg
 
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chuckroast

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I wonder if it is possible to have an object that decays to something beautiful if the object were not beautiful to begin with.

With this month's assignment a sentence from Tolkien immediately came to mind: "Ithilien, the garden of Gondor now desolate kept still a dishevelled dryad loveliness."

If you look at the picture that I used to prime the pump above, a fairly boring and unremarkable brownstone gets transformed - in my opinion - into a hauntingly beautiful new thing because of a fire. The new things is - to me - more emotionally compelling than the untouched building would have been.

You can also see this in the faces and bodies of people. Tragedy, fear, sadness, or just the ravages of age can transform people's spirits, and it's reflected in their bodies, posture, and faces. Sometimes, that transformation is powerful and fierce. Sometimes it's very destructive. But you can find a beauty in both.

If you don't think so, take time this week to watch a veteran of WWII standing on the beaches of Normandy in the 80 year remembrance of the liberation of Europe by the Allies. He is well into is 90s. His body is likely broken and frail. But you will see a fierce pride along with the sadness of remembering his fallen comrades as tears run down his face. In all probability, that man was not remarkably good looking or striking in his youth, but the transformative and destructive results of war created that fierce and deeply emotional man in full.

So, no, I don't think it has to start out beautiful. A lot of very pedestrian things are transformed by decay into emotionally compelling and "beautiful" new things.

I chose this theme for MSA because its something I do a lot myself. I try to look beyond the "oh that building burned down" to find some deeper beauty that the very act of decay may have created.

Art isn't about recording things. It's about constructing and interpreting them. Decay is one of the forces that can be both destructive and constructive.

This should be fun to watch. There are no wrong answers. But when you find a right one, it will bang you over the head...
 
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Ivo Stunga

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I'm very lucky to be into Urban Exploration and Latvian living today - when I can quite freely enjoy an assortment of abandonments, ranging:
- from the beginning of Industrialization with pleasant architecture to the human soul built by Baltic Germans, Latvians and russians as part of russian empire;
- continuing with the experiment called "Planned Socialist Economy" in the middle of it, producing rather ugly utilitarian and impressive Brutalist buildings;
- ending up in modern day with easily the least impressive and most replaceable architecture: drywalls and steel beams are boring and our footprint - that much more ephemeral.
This presents a neat range of architecture styles covering a sizeable time range.

Just last Sunday I was exploring a Chicory Coffee enterprise established in 1867. It was so good that a street was named after it - Cigoriņu iela or Chicory Street. After war and occupation, premises were repurposed as textile manufacturing plant from 1964 to 1991 when it wasn't abe to withstand the economic turmoil and massive change back to freedom, to democracy and free market.
And I found a calendar on the wall dated 1990. Calendars often tell the date when a place was shut down as there wasn't anyone there to replace them, freezing an artefact in time...

I've been doing this for decades so this presents a rather massive pool of images and challenge to selec just a few. So I'll do that and limit myself to 3 OLD one's... And I failed.
And definitely am shooting some new this month as another explore is approaching.



URBEX LV by Ivo Stunga - ruins of Sea fortifications, Liepāja.


Ārā by Ivo Stunga, on Flickr - these places present a nice playground for double exposures


RUREX LV by Ivo Stunga - and for subframing


RUREX LV by Ivo Stunga - or something surreal entirely


RUREX LV by Ivo Stunga - and something entirely seemingly silly


URBEX LV : Infrared by Ivo Stunga - and nature too loves a proper abandonment



Here's a link to album for anyone interested:
 
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Ivo Stunga

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Oh, and I like to scare people - can do decent Death/Black Metal vocals and some low Throat singing - it's super effective : D


URBEX LV - Skuju skola by Ivo Stunga, on Flickr
 

Mick Fagan

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Old.

Merrinee Wheat Silos

Shen Hao HZX45-IIA Fujinon W 150 f/6.3 FP4+ Polarising filter 1/15 @ f/22 along with 22mm front rise.

This is about 10-12 years ago second day of the new year and already a scorcher mid morning.

I've made many prints of this, plus during a Photrio Post Card group exchange, this is one of the prints I used.


Merrinee_Wheat_Silos_001_Web.jpg
 

Don_ih

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Old. 2017 Leica IIIb. Every year, I go go out with my brother to seek out places that have been abandoned.

1717323249915.png
 

warden

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I'm very lucky to be into Urban Exploration and Latvian living today - when I can quite freely enjoy an assortment of abandonments, ranging:
- from the beginning of Industrialization with pleasant architecture to the human soul built by Baltic Germans, Latvians and russians as part of russian empire;
- continuing with the experiment called "Planned Socialist Economy" in the middle of it, producing rather ugly utilitarian and impressive Brutalist buildings;
- ending up in modern day with easily the least impressive and most replaceable architecture: drywalls and steel beams are boring and our footprint - that much more ephemeral.
This presents a neat range of architecture styles covering a sizeable time range.

Just last Sunday I was exploring a Chicory Coffee enterprise established in 1867. It was so good that a street was named after it - Cigoriņu iela or Chicory Street. After war and occupation, premises were repurposed as textile manufacturing plant from 1964 to 1991 when it wasn't abe to withstand the economic turmoil and massive change back to freedom, to democracy and free market.
And I found a calendar on the wall dated 1990. Calendars often tell the date when a place was shut down as there wasn't anyone there to replace them, freezing an artefact in time...

I've been doing this for decades so this presents a rather massive pool of images and challenge to selec just a few. So I'll do that and limit myself to 3 OLD one's... And I failed.
And definitely am shooting some new this month as another explore is
Really nice work, Ivo.
 

skylight1b

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I have an idea for this month if I can do it in time, but here are two old ones:

I posted the first for "Time", but I think it's an example of nature trying to re-beautify something that is decaying, taken on Lomo 800.
Overgrown.jpg


The second is actually the same decaying building from a very different perspective. I love how the light glows through the glass windows when the sun is low in the sky, also on Lomo 800.

Glow.jpg
 

Ivo Stunga

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What About Bob

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All images made on my recently serviced Hasselblad 501C with 80mm f/2.8 lens. Developed in Barry Thornton's two-bath D23 with metaborate, 4.5 minutes for 100 speed film and 5 minutes for 400 speed film in both Parts at around 72F/22.2C. Liquidol print developer.

#1 - New Image: 06/04/2024
"Downed Tree" - Smith College, Mill River Path.
Kentmere 100 at box speed. 1/4 at f/11. Kentmere Luster paper. 14 seconds at f/22

#2 - New image: 06/04/2024
"Gnarly Tree Trunk" - Smith College, Mill River Path.
Kentmere 100 at box speed. 1/2 at f/16. Kentmere Luster paper. 14 seconds at f/22

#3 - New image: 06/04/2024
"Pillar on Pleasant" - Old Post Office on Pleasant street near downtown.
Kentmere 100 at box speed. 1/4 at f/19. Kentmere Luster paper. 20 seconds at f/22

Old pillar with old chipped metal fence.


#4 - New image: 06/05/2024
"Cemetery Stone Blotches" - Bridge Street Cemetery.
Kentmere 400 at box speed. 1/500 at f/19. Kentmere Luster paper. 8 seconds at f/22

Old cemetery stones. Almost shooting into the sun. Had lens shade on.


#5 - New image: 06/07/2024
"Lady at Fountain" - Smith College.
Kentmere 400 at box speed. 1/250 at f/22. Inkpress Multitone pearl paper. 9 seconds at f/22

On the right hand side of the fountain rim was a chunk that was taken out by one of two kids riding their bikes in and out of the fountain, back in 2011. I was actually there, not too far away, and witnessed when a piece of the rim came right off.


#6 - New image: 06/07/2024
"Haymarket Cafe" - Downtown.
Kentmere 400 at box speed. 1/125 at f/13. Kentmere Luster paper. 8 seconds at f/22

This one is sad. The status of this cafe seems to be up in the air. Someone else was thinking of taking it over but I don't have any recent news about this. This was my hang out place. Started going there in 1992. Businesses come and go and there are skeleton places left over. Downtown isn't what it used to be and I fear that as more time goes by, more will be lost. There are many things going wrong here and it isn't only related to businesses.


#7 - New image: 06/07/2024
"Back Patio" - In back of my friend's house.
Kentmere 400 at box speed. 1/125 at f/13. Kentmere Luster paper. 8 seconds at f/22

Old house, warped boards bowing out and damaged awning from AC unit always falling out from the second floor window, lol.
 

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  • Gnarly Tree Trunk.jpg
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  • Pillar on Pleasant.jpg
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  • Cemetery Stone blotches.jpg
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  • Lady at Fountain.jpg
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