Apparitional Experience COMING TO: Vintage Inspired Marketplace: FRIDAY: May 3

Apparitional Experience

New Photographs by Lorraine Reynolds

VINTAGE INSPIRED MARKETPLACE 

180 Flynn Avenue

Burlington, VT

802-488-5766

On Display:

May 3rd to June 5th

OPENING RECEPTION

FRIDAY May 3rd

5-8pm

Here's a little bit of information about the new exhibit I will be hanging next week in the gallery at Vintage Inspired Marketplace. I am really excited about this new body of work. It is the first time, outside of showing it at Vermont College, that this work has been shown to the public.

A majority of the photographs were taken during the fall when I was out and about in the state of VT photographing crumbling remains of buildings and farms. This process was featured in the Burlington Free Press in October of 2014. 

click for link to BFP article.

These photographs are peaceful, silent, still, resigned forms of evidence. They are monuments. They are tombstones.They serve as documentation of "what was." On the surface they are images of crumbling buildings but they speak to something else. They point to the thing that is missing. These abandoned spaces are without human habitation.  Beyond the images of decay and abandonment there is something there that we can't quite define. Its untraceable. Indistinguishable.

The place between seeing and knowing is imprecise and extremely hard to nail down. It is a location in the mind that is only mapped by the memory artist.  It can be as elusive as a phantom that comes and goes into view like a fog.  It resides in the dark corners of our cellars and the cobwebs of our attics. It finds refuge in the gaps of our memory and solace in our childhood reminiscence.  

We find the spirits of the past lingering in the landscapes of trauma deeply rooted with a permanence of the ground that has reclaimed it.  Crumbling buildings and ancient estates serve as sanctuary for the forgotten, the lost, and the unclaimed. The souls who haunt our present are constant reminders of a past we cannot escape. We are intertwined with these beings as they are a symbol of our own mortality and our need for our own personal histories to persist in the memories of others.

Vanishing Vermont: Granville Revisted

Alright, these photos are from Granville, NY NOT Granville, VT. Which, as discussed in a previous post is a town just on the other side of the river from VT, so  I am going to include these pictures in the Vanishing Vermont, but yes, for all intensive purposes this IS NOT technically Vermont. 

 

 I know I said I would post more photos of the quarry first, but to tell the truth, I started sorting those files and skimmed across the shots I took of this location, not far from the Rose Inn. I have been playing with the idea of building a miniature house out of reclaimed wood, I wanted to look at internal building structures so I came back to this series of photos. And I sort of, got absorbed in this place. 

After about an hour, I was half way through all the shots, so I went for broke and edited them all. There's no color playing here or black and white. I am leaving you with what strikes me the most. The fact that this house is in partial demolition. And, according to a local, my friend I was driving around the area with, it has been in this state for QUITE a while. I took these photos in early September, right before the leaves started to turn color. The day was absolutely perfect, blue skies and warm. Which is such a striking contrast to the state of the building.

I am left thinking about, what the owner is planning on doing with the site. Why they pulled all the siding off the face, why the took out an entire wall? The post and beam construction is so lovely, especially with the slat   and plaster walls showing through. The house across the street was built in 1812, so it makes me wonder when this house was erected. Could it be able the same time? Maybe a little earlier? Who knows. On the bright and blue sky day that we visited this location, not a single ghost passed by to tell us their story or for that matter did any one in town stop to ask why I was taking photographs of this crumbling structure.


With out a history told to us, what do we know about the place? Are there clues that fill us in. Maybe. Can we ever really know what secrets lay sleeping behind this walls. Even as the skeleton of the place is exposed as severely as this? Probably not... Ours, perhaps, is only to ponder, why. What would you think if you drove by this everyday on your way to work or school. Would it make you stop and wonder why? Or would you ignore it and think, what an eye sore.  Part of me thinks that it is so incredibly tragic that all the labor, time, energy and resources, that went into building this home is being nullified. But even on top of that, this sanctuary of domestic life that has probably seen 200 years of families live and die here is been torn apart. Where is the history of those people? What is left of their stories? Certainly, at some point, not their old home. Their story will lay wasting in a pile of rubble and broken bits, to be scooped up and added to a landfill. 

 

The Chicken Coop

On our property we have an old chicken coop that is falling down. In fact there is no roof and only three walls.  It's been this way for as long as we have own it. here and there I have been salvaging wood from it for a while. Some of those pieces have been transformed into barn board people. 

I'm trying to find a way to incorporate this structure into my studio work.... not sure how that is going to happen.

Working on this in my brain... 

Wondering what will come out of it.

Vanishing Vermont: Middlesex

Right off the highway the between Waterbury amd Montpelier is where you will find this sleepy little village. Middlesex, Vermont is a little town. fewer than 1,800 people call it home.

I stumbled upon this abandoned house and train depot not far from the center of town.  Trains still push through on this track on the way to Burlington and beyond, but the days of passengers getting on and off at this platform is long gone. So sad to bear witness to the decline of the railroad.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog. 

Please remember that I retain the rights to all original photography posted. While I am honored and flattered that you

might enjoy the work enough to want to use or repost other places, please do not do so with out permission. All photos copyright L Reynolds 2012

Thanks! Lorraine

Vanishing Vermont: Middletown Springs

I am still sorting through all the photos I took about two weeks ago when I was out and about in Rutland County and Granville, NY. As long as your are interested, I will keep sharing my pictures of timeworn beauty.  I think I may have taken almost 600 photos that weekend. That's lots of editing. I'm going to keep chiseling out time to go through them all, location by location.  

This little installment is represents some shots that I took on our way from Middleton Springs to Wallingford. I really like taking t back roads, because you get to see all sorts of wonderful sites. I feel very lucky we had such a beautiful day to go out and explore. 

We stopped at the Mineral Springs Park to check out the Head Springs monument. At one point in the 1850s and 1860s curing waters of newly discovered mineral springs prompting the development of huge hotels and resorts in some of the most remote Vermont locations. Middletown Spring is one such village. The old hotel that sat along the bank of the Poultney River is gone, but the Historical Society has created a sweet little park to mark the location of the Old head spring. You can actually collect water there, although I don't know if what healing effects you might feel.

While we didn't get to see ruins of an old hotel, we did catch some wonderful visions of decay and abandonment on our trek to East to Wallingford. The goldrod was in full bloom lending color to the fields around us. Although the leaves are turning now, they were lush and green only two weeks ago. 

I hope you enjoy this little part on the journey. Until next time....

 

Vanishing Vermont: Wallingford

We happened on this place a few weeks ago on our way to Manchester. Completely gutted on the inside, the grounds are totally overgrown, looks like someone started restoring it as a project and then gave up.

Form the looks of it, I'd guess it was a mercantile or country store. The sign above the door dates it to 1835. There's several layers of siding that has been pulled away. I'm hoping that whomever ultimately restores this place will find a way to keep the pre-war billboard on the north side of the building.

 

  

Thank you so much for visiting my blog. 

Please remember that I retain the rights to all original photography posted. While I am honored and flattered that you

might enjoy the work enough to want to use or repost other places, please do not do so with out permission. All photos copyright L Reynolds 2012

Thanks! Lorraine

ROSE INN: GRANVILLE, NY

Gutted down to studs, lonely and waiting for restoration. The Rose Inn in Granville, NY. A beautiful old Victorian that has seen better days. On the market and looking for a new owner...

Thank you so much for visiting my blog. Please remember that I retain the rights to all original photography posted. While I am honored and flattered that you might enjoy the work enough to want to use or repost other places, please do not do so with out permission. All photos copyright L Reynolds 2012

Thanks! Lorraine

VANISHING VERMONT: WHITING

I'm not sure what the original purpose of this building was, meeting hall, grange or one room school house. We drove by just as the sun was setting....

Standing sentry, alone and silent.

Simply beautiful.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog. Please remember that I retain the rights to all original photography posted. While I am honored and flattered that you might enjoy the work enough to want to use or repost other places, please do not do so with out express permission from the artist. 

Thanks! Lorraine

VANISHING VERMONT: POULTNEY

This past weekend, I have been out in the greater Rutland and Addison county area with camera in hand. It's been a very productive couple of days. I think I have shot well over 400 photos. That said, I have a ton of editing to do. I'll have more photos real soon. I am going to start with some touring we did in Poultney.

In this sleepy little town with it's tree-lines streets and slow paced life, College Street full of grand homes ranging from the 1830s to 1900s. (Some homes in East Poultney are even older than this, dating back to I believe BEFORE the Revolutionary War.)

Some of these old stately residences are being restored and put to good use... others like this old antiques shop are falling into ruins. Poultney came appear to be a picture perfect Vermont college town. But, there is also something not quite right with Poultney, off the beaten path, with only about 3,600 permanent residents. It's as if the town is caught in the past. To say that there is a dark undercurrent to this outwardly serene town would not be a stretch, either. Spend enough time here and you'll find it's a little warped, like Twin Peaks or the Outer Limits. College Street has been the scene of at least 2 grizzly and completely unrelated murders in the past 10 years. Maybe its all the old architecture and overall Gothic feel. Edgar Allen Poe, might have felt very at home here.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog. Please remember that I retain the rights to all original photography posted. While I am honored and flattered that you might enjoy the work enough to want to use or repost other places, please do not do so with out express permission from the artist. 

Thanks! Lorraine