My grandpa, John Westerfield, loved to fish. We used to go fishing all the time in the summer months at his lake cottage on Goose Lake, a small lake in Whitley County, Indiana. He taught me to fly fish, and to make my own flies, which I made for him after his eyesight got too bad to do it himself. He passed away in 1999, the year I graduated from art school. He was always proud of my photography work, but he never got to see my best work. I wish that I’d done more photographs of him. Unlike my other grandpa, he didn’t like having his picture taken very much. I made this photograph in 1994.
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This little American Flag was on the ground in front of a bunch of snowmen built by Occupy Fort Wayne protesters on the Courthouse Green along Main Street. I think it had been in the hand of one of the snowmen, but someone had knocked it down.
There was also a sign stuck in a snowbank by the Occupy protesters at the corner of Main and Clinton Streets, and a snowman wearing a Guy Fawkes mask.
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Occupy Fort Wayne protesters built this snowman wearing a Guy Fawkes mask at the corner of Main Street and Clinton Street in front of the Allen County Courthouse. The Lincoln Tower is visible through the fog in the background.
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The American flag flies atop the Lincoln Tower in downtown Fort Wayne on a foggy night. The twenty-two story office building, completed in 1930, was the first skyscraper in Indiana, and it remained the tallest building in the state until a taller office tower was built in Indianapolis in 1962.
It was originally the headquarters of Lincoln National Bank (now part of Wells Fargo), and is now home to another locally owned bank, Tower Bank. There are now two taller bank towers in Fort Wayne, both soul-less and modern in appearance.
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Occupy Fort Wayne protesters left their message in this snowbank at the corner of Main Street and Clinton Street in front of the Allen County Courthouse. The sign says: “Congress, Only the 99 Percent can win you job security. Start listening.” I made this photograph around 9pm last night.
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I discovered this concrete bench along Dalman Road in a rural area of Allen County several years ago, but had not had the opportunity to photograph it until yesterday. It looks like an especially uncomfortable church pew! There was heavy snow blowing across the scene when I made this photograph, which is more visible in prints.
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I made this photograph a few minutes after the one I posted yesterday. The sun was about to rise, and the sky had lightened up a bit.
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I pass by this laundromat on South Calhoun Street every morning when I take my son to school. The lights are always on inside, even when it is closed, as it was the morning that I photographed it. The sign out by the street proclaims that The Wash House Laundry and Dry Cleaning is “The pride of the south side.”
I photographed it early yesterday morning, after dropping Mack off at school.
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This sign, which says that the shop is closed due to the pumpkin shortage, is posted at Hardy’s Farm Market on Knoll Road, just outside the city of Fort Wayne. They sell sweet corn grown on their farm, and they sell pumpkins in the fall.
There was a pumpkin shortage in Indiana in 2011, because bad weather in other parts of the country had destroyed pumpkin crops grown in some areas. Midwestern farmers didn’t grow enough to supply both us and those in other areas that weren’t able to grow their own.
The same day that I photographed the sign, I photographed the flower planters made from old bathroom fixtures next to the farm’s house, and the old truck rusting away in the field. A couple of years ago, I photographed an old shed behind the house.
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This old 1940s era Chevrolet truck has been rusting away for decades in a field next to Hardy’s Farm Market on Knoll Road, just outside the city of Fort Wayne.
The same day that I photographed the truck, I photographed the flower planters made from old bathroom fixtures next to the farm’s house. A couple of years ago, I photographed an old shed behind the house.
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