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Saturday, October 1, 2011
A pile of tires and worn out buildings were the norm for this area. This part of the Platte Valley was northwest of downtown and just beyond the 20th Street Viaduct. Coors Field would be built just east of this location — remarkable!
Desolation, dirt and dust — welcome to Inca Street. Water tower partially gone, power and telephone lines to nowhere... Weeds and wanderers called this area home.
A closer look of this block after a late winter snow storm. The prominent building was called the "Dave Cook" warehouse, later converted to lofts. The smaller warehouses housed the Hendrie-Bolthoff Company.
This image is strikingly different from any others I have taken. The content features a man (my photos rarely include people) sweeping inside of the Hendrie-Bolthoff building. The image looks almost like a painting or a charcoal print. The scene was very contrasting in dark and light. I did not want to wash out the image and used a very slow shutter speed of 1/30 of a second and this was the result. A soft quality emerged containing strong lines and fortunately good composition. It is one of my favorite images and is mesmerizing to me. I have looked and looked at this image. The rays of light shining in the ladder — is it for going up or coming down? The man, the broom, the room. This image has an inspirational and yet ominous feeling...
The 2900 block of Inca Street with the area of lower downtown. Just beyond, Coors Field would be built. The Firemen's Grain Elevator and 20th Street Viaduct can be seen with the towering office buildings beyond them.
This is just a wicked image, the black side of the "Dave Cook" building, the huge puddle of water — crater-like — and downtown Denver beyond. Two worlds are shown here, the old and new. In time, the two would merge and compliment each other just like many parts of lower downtown Denver. A few years ago, the Denver Film Festival started its grand opening with a short introduction at the beginning of the film festival. The scene was filmed in this exact location. I almost fell out of my chair. I looked to my wife, Candice, and we beamed together with pride.
Tires and empty barrels surround the huge Hungarian Flour Mill building looming above Inca Street. The 20th Street Viaduct can be seen on the far left. The Platte River is just beyond this scene. The scene continues with the Highlands neighborhood to the Northwest.
It was a time when railroads were prominent to transport goods. This rail line is just southeast of Inca Street. The Hungarian Flour Mill is beyond to the Northwest.
For additional images and
commentary, please
refer to the
Bottoms Area section.
This unassuming image has treasures to behold of past architectural gifts from architects and builders for the citizens of Denver to use and enjoy. I was a conduit, a documentary photographer to chronicle some of our past. Hopefully, I was an eye for Denver to help us remember and respect part of our past, and move into the future as well. The Lightbox was magic to me. It was a gift to me for my hard work and vision. I in turn would pas this gift onto future generations. My inexpensive Lightbox, along with my budget of beer and film, produced "wealth" on top of my inexpensive magical Lightbox. I am surrounded in this scene by mementos of Denver. Small items of inspiration, of like-minded thoughts, of the love for Denver. In this image is a page from Westword of Kenny Be cartoons, a Denver map, a child-hood picture of me, a soon to be official Colorado Rockies baseball cap, a "City Desk" plaque and an architectural structural/decorative "Star" used in old buildings. The room reeks with Denver memories; I bathed in its afterglow... Making a photograph is the collection of completing one process and moving forward onto the completion of another process until the final print. It was all very hard work; it was all fun and easy because of the magical Lightbox. The process included thinking of photos at night, in the morning and all through the day. It meant planning a city journey or a particular photo. Some journeys and photos were successful, some were not. I would photograph 20-30 rolls of film a month and usually process the work weekly. It was a wonderful ritual, absolutely wonderful. I would take my film out of the film canisters in my darkroom and process 4 or 8 rolls for the weekly evening event - yes, it was an event. My scene was infused with great rock and roll, great beer, and, hopefully, some great images of Denver. Hey! What a special time; I was in heaven. When the film was processed and dry, the negatives were put into plastic sleeves. Once my expensive Lupe was placed on the film, it was time for the rubber to meet the road. All the previous work would now be measured as I looked intensely onto each and every image. Then excitedly, my anticipation was satisfied as an image such as this one below would rise from my little Lightbox.
Eureka! It was glorious. For additional images and commentary, please refer to the Lower Downtown section.
Hal Gould was before his time in Denver to exhibit fine art photography when it was not appreciated widely as an art form. Hal Gould also was a fine photographer in his own right, his work belongs to many fine collections. He championed respect for photography. It was obvious to him that photo images had importance and power. He was correct. Many people over the years worked along side Hal nuturing their clients and the community. Loretta Young-Gautier joined Hal in the 1990's to compliment the gallery as Associate Director and also her fine surrealist multiple exposure photo work. Camera Obscura Gallery exhibited may of the finest photographers in the world. Some of the photographers exhibited were:
I just had to photograph a Tee-pee in downtown Denver, very fitting for Camer Obscura. Thank you, Hal Gould and Loretta Young-Gaultier - Kim Allen |
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