20.3.10

Wild West

Mostly, I take pictures of things that I notice by chance. This was not one of those times.

This building stands along a major thoroughfare. I've seen it many times, and I recently took myself on a delightfully long walk for no purpose other than to see it. From a distance, driving past in a cab, it looked to me not unlike so many other bullet-riddled buildings in the city. Seen that way, it called up all the expected images of Lebanon's civil war, street violence and snipers and rubble.

But this time I was on foot, standing directly beside it. While I was there, I got a powerful feeling of the old (American) wild west. Cowboys, Saloon girls, outlaws, tumbleweed, cacti, drought, lonesome country, big sky and ghost towns, all there in my mind clear as day.

6 comments:

  1. Were you wearing Cowgirl boots? Another great photo, Mary Ann!

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  2. Wow, it certainly does make you think of the wild west.

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  3. Leif, ha! No. Flip-flops. They're part of my urban uniform.

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  4. Love it. Derek and I are huge fans of old western movies; this could easily be used as a movie set.

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  5. It is sad, isn't it, to see and urban landscape shot up so.

    I love the decoration dripping from beneath the overhang and that one lone, singular open shutter.

    An image that tells of loss in so many ways ...

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  6. You have quite an imagination!

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