A return to Gary, the struggling steel town about 45 minutes outside Chicago, is always welcome. I spent so much time here when I started in photography that there isn’t much here I haven’t seen, and yet I feel I always come away with some fresh shots. And, as my avocation has become more ambitious and taken me across the country and the world, returning here feels like a practice session. And I don’t mean this dismissively, rather that coming back here allows for all the exploration of the craft without the fatigue of travel, and, frankly, worry about getting arrested.
That is to say, Gary is not without its risks. The city has been changing, with many abandoned sites getting razed and police taking trespassers more seriously than they did when I started out. This is bittersweet, as I wish this city the best and understand that “the best” means not being a playground for urbex photographers. But when we got the news, not long after visiting a couple weeks ago, that the First Methodist Church was up for demolition soon, it hit hard. I am not very sentimental, and accept that abandonment and decay are usually a one way ticket to utter ruins for most buildings, even as it allows me to do the kind of photography I love. But… this was the building that first made me realize just how beautiful decay could be. I will miss it when it is gone.
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This last is as close as I could get to a recreation of a shot, seen below, I took here around 15 years ago. The church has changed a lot, but so has my editing style. God, everything had to be HDR back then…
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Here are photos from other stops that day:
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Seen above are the masses of clothing heaped in piles at an old factory. Not particularly great subject matter, but it had always been notoriously hard to get a good shot that conveyed the scope and I think I finally got that this time around.
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We will close here, on the floor of that same factory. Here, to quote Dr. Ian Malcolm, “life, uh, finds a way”
T A B U L A R A S A photography 