AROUND THE CORNER OF DREAMS

                                Glendale Ave, Phoenix                                          young '14

DEAD RINGERS

“Opportunity tends to knock once, then it’s gone. Temptation, however likes to stand there and lean on the damm doorbell!”  Sarah Moores

Apartments doorbells have their own drama and often form interesting parts of movie lore. They are no less interesting when you happen upon unique ones on city walks.

Milo Kellogg, the inventor of the telephone switchboard, is credited with creating the first doorbell systems for apartments and buildings in 1894. Older apartments often have doorbell panels that have existed for decades. Some buttons still working, some taking on the tenants personality, and some gone all together. Often there are signs of rough shod desperate attempts to keep them working, sometimes even including special instructions on how to use a certain button. 

They are fun parts of the city to find and explore. Found in narrow walkways and dimly lit places, they are always a challenge to photograph. I admit being tempted to push the unique button or the ones with no name, called dead ringers. Lives, tenants, landlords all tangled in small city stories. Ones I yearn to know. Yes, I am always tempted to ring….

CATAWABA DANCING

We danced along the Catawaba, asking those of the River to remember us...

THE TELLING OF TRUE WEALTH

Highway 21 runs north and south through the heart of the Carolina Piedmont to the Low Country. It is a highway of commerce where people live and make a living. As you move south, though, that commerce gives way to gentle rural land and beauty. You find gems from the past like the old house I took a photo of. After taking the picture, I saw a woman with a cane walking out to her mailbox from a farm home. Wanting to learn more about the house, I drove up the road to introduce myself. Her name was Edna. I ask if she knew any history on the home. 

She said yes, “It was the Thomas Farm.” She paused for a moment looking at it. “My husband always wanted to buy it and the acreage that came with it. When he died, I used part of the life insurance money to make his dream of our mile come true. The Thomas acreage and ours totaled 640 acres. Our mile was made.” 

Edna and I chatted for a while then she politely said good bye and started walking back to her home. I looked beyond the home to behold property that stretched to a far line of trees, some fields tilled, some not and two horses roaming free. My business mind kicked in and did the math. 640 acres times the going price for farm land was $1.8 million. It would be worth four times more once new commerce reached here. I wondered, as I watched her walk toward her home, if she understood that wealth. Then I looked again at “her mile.” Perhaps she did not understand my math but could provide a telling of true wealth.

GARNETT DISTRICT - ATLANTA WANDERINGS

Atlanta impresses, its skyline fills the landscape and glistens in the afternoon sun. There were lots of places to explore with my camera. One place though beckoned me, the Garnett District. Official guides politely described it as “just south of Five Points is the somewhat rundown and isolated area of downtown near the Greyhound Bus station and government buildings.” On the map, it looked like a place where the glitzy Peachtree and Forsyth Streets crashed into dead ends right at the Bus station. I knew this was where I would find artist and parts of the city both untouched and touched by real people. My camera was not disappointed by my adventures there.

FINDING ART OPPORTUNITY

"Painted Letter" by David Young

Ansel Adams took on many photographic assignments beyond national parks. He was once hired by a bank in Hawaii to photograph the islands. Steering away from the normal attractions, he sought out undiscovered and less traveled sites to photograph. One was a cluster of grave markers in Paia, Maui. It turned out to be one of his most famous photographs entitled “Buddhist Grave Markers and Rainbow.”

Later he would write in “The Making of 40 Photographs,” that you did not have to know everything about a subject of a photo to make it great. He never did find out what the inscriptions on the stones meant, but he knew there was a great photograph in them. He said, “I am glad that I do not understand the language of operas; I can enjoy the music without being bothered with the words.” Finding good opportunities in art seems much like this to me, where too much information can stand in the way.

David Young

A SIMPLE SONG

A Simple Song

We had this conversation before. You always looking back at me coldly, resolute in your way. I wanted your life to be a simple song. I tried to raise you as best I could after your mother was gone. We talked before about what a simple song life could be. You only wanted to put evil in your arms and nose, hanging out with others that had no end. You never responded to my pleas, only looking back at me, coldly, resolute in your ways. I knew this would be our last talk, as I looked up to hear the words of another man dressed in black and the dirt being tossed in.

David Young

Oakland Street Truck

                               "Oakland Street Truck" - Rock Hill, SC

SMALL DREAMS

The first in a series of art videos on the small dreams of ordinary people

Dancing at the El Moro

Dancing at the El Moro

Its all boarded up now, sin and all.

Filled with passion, lust and abandon.

I once danced at the El Moro.

Any sanity or reason far off.

No one knew me there. Just a white gringo pig

Or so they called me when

I once danced at the El Moro.

Bejeweled women all flimsy and nice.

Hustles left and right, seen through

Some azure created by shots of straight Jack.

I once danced at the El Moro.

I wanted to risk all in a messy place.

Bold and crazy, I forgot I was old.

I once danced at the El Moro.

There are fences and spaces in life though.

Those with scowls on their faces looked at me.

Disdain and looks of hate. I did not belong there.

I once danced at the El Moro.

I did not care. Then I heard a sermon from somewhere.

The voice said, "they like me had no souls. Just waiting for hell.

There were other places I wanted to go.

Its all boarded up now, sin and all.

I once danced at the El Moro.

"THE OTHER SIDE OF LUCK" by David Young

"The Other Side of Luck" is a collection of short stories about misfits, small heroes, and dreamers played out in the wildness of the West. It is now available on Amazon Books at the following link
BOOKLINK

BROKEN DISHES AND UNTOLD STORIES

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY NOTES

I felt one with my camera. The midday sun warmed me. The City played against its special music and danced before me. I was out in the world, but not part of it. My camera and eye were free to catch the special moments of the street.

THE SOUTH

I had the desert with all it's dangers left bare by the vastness.

Now I looked upon the deep forests of the South

And did not know of it...

SOMEONE

Someone

I left my small apartment, #101.

I wished to be loved by some

Or especially one.

I traveled across country,

To make others profit

For a small share.

I flew with two hundred

And passed another

Thousand today.

People always talking

And texting. Letting Bosses

Know they are working.

Hoping there would still,

Be work for them.

Returned to my apartment, #101.

Still hoping to be loved by some

Or especially one.

dyoung ‘16

SHOP OWNERS

SHOP OWNERS

"Behind every small shop there is a story worth knowing..." - Ryan

I always had to go out in the market to find business. Often, I would wander into small shops at the end of a hard day of sales. Envy filled me, the business simply walked in the door for these shop owners. The best owners crafted their shops into near art forms with items and decor placed in just the right spot to create joy.  My business mind told me that these shops were high risk, often coming and going quickly. Still, each was a special place where the proud owner mixed happily with customers wanting their goods. They were places that reflected all the owner's being, the passion showing in their eyes. I knew that win or loose, the experience would always have a special place in their lives. I knew these things, as I left for another day out in the market.

David Young

"YA WOMAN"

                           "Ya Woman"                                                               young '15
                          (collage on book cover)

FACES

WAITING FOR NEXT ROAD ADVENTURE