Imagine

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This week I stumbled on this old Ford truck while deep in farm country searching for freshly picked sweet corn.  I always carry my old d5100 with me for such occasions as I find it less awkward than using the Subaru's built in back up camera.  This old Ford had character, and I am not speaking of the kind of character who was photo bombing me in the original photo.  What I saw in that old truck was decades of honest hard work during steamy July days and a trustworthy winter ride across unplowed country roads during the cold, dark days of December.

Photographs are taken with the camera but they are born in the mind of the photographer.  In 1968,  Bobby Kennedy became best known for a social comment that I think reflects my feeling as I took this photo and others like it. "Some men see things as the are and ask why?  I dream things that never were and say why not!" The original photo above is the view most people see as they drive by that old Ford -- just another junker within a retirement home for rusting clunkers that no longer have utility.  It's unworthy of a second look.

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The photo that I saw in my mind that day is the one on the left side of the page.  It shows an everyday blue collar worker still wearing those faded denims and sporting blotches of tanned (rust) wrinkled skin inflicted by storms and long dusty days. If this was a portrait of the farmer who drove this truck I would want to show the blemishes and calluses from an unwavering commitment to daily chores. I added a vintage film look to the photo as a nod to the period when this truck was a working vehicle.  The sky was blurred to emphasize the passage of time and the slow changing pace of life in farming communities where work, heritage and personal identity are wound tightly together.  For me, this image strengthens my belief that where a photo takes you is much more important than where you took the photo.  Which photo takes you to that welcoming place you long to be?