out-of-plumb

I am reaching way back into my film archive for this photograph. I remembered it well, though was not sure I could find it!

Rural Montana is rife with buildings like these, abandoned or semi-so: homes, barns, out-buildings and the like. This one stood out from the rest for its curious relationship to plumb, alluding to the title of my image. I also enjoyed the titles’ connection to how photographers direct their human subjects… “a little to the right”, etc. 

An added attraction is the face presented in the siding and the triangular highlights in the eyes. I am always looking for these anthropomorphic anomalies, they add personality and a dash of humor to the photograph. This structure, with its wide open mouth appears to be worried about its eventual demise, similar to the emoji…  :-O  The only manipulation was the conversion to black and white, the darker fall off at the edges of the siding is natural.

It is curious how good my memory is with the photographs I have made, I remember this day vividly, the cool breezes and the walk I took to make this capture, some 20 years ago. I am pretty sure the building has fallen down by now.