Stephen Shore - Uncommon Places (Little Rock, Ark.)

For Christmas, I recieved this amazing book by Stephen Shore called Uncommon Places. It's filled with photos taken with a plate camera of buildings, parking lots, diners and cars. Shore took these shots in the early 70s, and with the plate camera, every detail is so clear and vibrant that I've spent quarter-hours poring over the style of parking meters, the old "Master Charge" logo that pops up everywhere, how those yellow-on-black interstate signs still exist today. There's just a little part of me that almost hopes I fall through the book, where I can walk around and touch these dusty fenders and turn the rusty doorknobs of the deserted barber shops...

Featured in the book are three photos from my hometown, Little Rock. I work within walking distance of the locations and thought I'd try to see if I could "match" the photo with Shore's to get an idea of how much has changed downtown in the past 35 years.

It wasn't easy, but it made me much more aware of what has changed and what hasn't changed on the sidewalks I see every day.

This was the first picture in the book that I saw of my town. I had been looking at the pages before it, and when I hit this one, I still stared at out of habit for a good minute before I realized, Wait, I know this building from real life.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3530/3180727359_c1c7fb57bc_o.jpg

The address given in the book is Fourth Street, but this building sits on the corner of Third. I thought maybe it was another building altogether about a block away until I walked down there last week and found it.

Unfortunately, it is now impossible to duplicate this photograph exactly.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3087/3181563064_fa632c8e0c_o.jpg

They paved a parking lot and put up a parking deck.

Shore apparently took the following photograph in front of the building featured above, back in 1974.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3454/3181563304_728170bbdf_o.jpg

Here's the one I took this afternoon in 2009. It's pretty obvious what's changed.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3334/3181563256_880763b857_o.jpg

However, the cool part is that the red building and white building on the left side of the picture are still there, and pretty much unchanged after 35 years.

own it

Speaking of unchanged, these final shots are unreal. Except for the cars, a for lease sign, and the parking lot logo, everything is pretty much identical. The street lamp has the same exoskeleton. The stoplights are still the doghouse variety. The parking meters have hardly changed.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3381/3181563104_b2cff66819_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3433/3180727503_74849ef639_o.jpg

There is one big difference. In the first photo, I noted that Shore took his photo around 3:00 in the afternoon, judging by the meters' shadows (We're looking south down Center Street there.) So I took a quick coffee break around the same time this afternoon, jogged the few blocks over to the location, and thought I got my times all wrong since it was already so dark there. No shadows from the meters on this street.

Did I mess up because the days are shorter right now? Or....

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3260/3180727547_905fc162cf_o.jpg

There to my west, on the left side of the picture above, is the Metropolitan Bank Building, Arkansas' tallest skyscraper, topping out at a nosebleeding 546 feet tall.

Built in 1986, twelve years after Shore's original photograph was taken.

very cool

This is a great project, PP.

I should do this for Fort Worth, Garry Winogrand published a book on the Stock Show ~1980.

Make a daytrip to Amarillo. Shore went nuts there.

Other rephotography links.

Jim Lileks has been doing something like this by posting current Google Maps street views next to old postcards.

This looks pretty great. I have his American Surfaces book which is really amazing. Lots of great interiors of seedy motels, toilets, gas stations, etc. This looks more cityscape oriented?

Did I mess up because the days are shorter right now? Or....

Yes, you need to know what day and time he took the picture to recreate it exactly. Or conversely, you can try to figure out what angle the sun is in the sky, based on the picture, and then figure out the next time it will be in that same position, using a sun position calculator.

I went to Amarillo in 2006 and I know he took a pic of the amarillo national bank. I didn't have the book with me and didn't know the exact position (don't have the book with me now either so no idea if this is close or not)

Anyway hope you don't mind a photo of Amarillo on your Little Rock thread. Great thread idea tho!

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/161/353175123_92794a4efd.jpg

Awesome! I love this kind of stuff

Yes, you need to know what day and time he took the picture to recreate it exactly. Or conversely, you can try to figure out what angle the sun is in the sky, based on the picture, and then figure out the next time it will be in that same position, using a sun position calculator.

Or maybe Walter, like I pointed out, someone built a 48-story building in the way of the sun.

cool thread, tre.

i've been in that first building just once. i played hooky from my old job one time and as punishment they sent me there to see some sort of job counselor. he tried to intimidate me, but i defeated him in the battle of wills. hate of job trumps all. i don't miss those days.

are these all the pix from the book? i want to do more!

Metropolitan Bank Building, Arkansas' tallest skyscraper

pretty much spent 16 hours every day for about 2 months in that building last year. Little Rock's environs are really nice on a clear fall day.

geezers kiosk

re: metropolitan building, it will always be the TCBY building. i miss that the tallest thing in the city was a frozen yogurt logo.

andrew,

I had that building confused with the one on Louisiana. There are many skinny buildings like that around here that are four rooms wide by sixteen stories tall that just stand out by themselves.

So far, these are the only images I've come across from Arkansas in the book. Shore's got many more from Out West that blow these out of the water.

(was that former job the same one led by the guy with the D@v1d 0'D0dd fetish?)

will,

I've only been up in the Met Bank Tower once, back when it was the TCBY Tower (named after the frozen yogurt company.) It was 9 pm on the foggiest night ever, so I didn't get to see much except clouds.

It's not my favorite building in town (kinda looks like an erector set), but the new leasers have put some snazzy lights on it to glow on the weekends.

it was the newspaper, tre. and are you speaking of the civil war "boy martyr"? i wasn't aware of a fetish, but i wouldn't put it past 'em.

at first glance i thought that building up top was "the pyramid building," which i think is the same one you mistook it for. my current employer, the municipal league, called the pyramid bldg home for a while in the 40's. kinda wish we were still there!

y'all really ought to check it out. there must be an observation floor at or near the top, yeah? if not, there's a gym on like the 32nd floor that has floor-to-ceiling windows on all four sides of the building with amazing panoramic views, especially of the north and west & Arkansas River. go up there and pretend like you want to join.

Or maybe Walter, like I pointed out, someone built a 48-story building in the way of the sun.

LOL, the "or..." threw me off and I read that as two separate posts. Oops.

np. you were absolutely right about getting the timing just so.

Then again, I'm using a little hp digital camera as opposed to a plate camera with tripod, so it's not going to be perfect anyway.

1973
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3381/3181563104_b2cff66819_o.jpg

2009
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3433/3180727503_74849ef639_o.jpg

2011
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5209/5287454570_5b88d0f3be_z.jpg

<3

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