Road trips have always been a big part of my life. By the time I was five years old (in the late 1950s) I had traveled the famous Route 66 numerous times with my parents (between Missouri, New Mexico, and on out to California). I’ve loved being on the road ever since. So, after more than a month of nothing but writing papers in response to my doctoral content prelim exams and completing an on-line research course, I decided to give myself a solo vacation to New Orleans to visit one of my sons and his family (read grandkids here!).

Pretty much I can’t stand driving on the interstate highways as they’re so blah, generic, or “pedestrian.” Instead, I’ll take backroads whenever the opportunity arises, which it did on this trip. I used the interstate system to get me into Mississippi, just south of Memphis, and then off the beaten path I went! Once I made my way over to Vicksburg, I drove U.S. Highway 61 along Ol’ Man River until I reached NOLA. There’s so much history along that corridor of the Mississippi River Valley, one could spend days photographing and sight-seeing the antebellum plantations and Civil War battlefields.

Photographically speaking, I captured some interesting shots, I think. After having a lunch of gumbo on my first day in New Orleans at my favorite local joint, Liuzza’s, I made my way over to City Park. The Live Oaks there are incredible with their branches touching the ground and suckering off new trees. Other photo ops included another muffler man (the King) and Mammy’s Cupboard (near Natchez, MS) for my Incongruity series; cool looking Cyprus trees in the Jean Laffite Bayou; a new balcony series from the French Quarter; and incredible views of the 275-year old Live Oak “alley” at Oak Alley Plantation.

Oak Alley Plantation, © 2009 Terry Ownby

Mammy’s Cupboard, © 2009 Terry Ownby

Last week Wilson (photography program coordinator and colleague at UCM) and I headed down to Joplin, MO to pick up our images that had been displayed in the recent Photo Spiva show. Since the day was young, we decided to head over to Springfield, my old stomping grounds when I was a college student. We made our way downtown and started looking for the galleries on Walnut Street. Imediately we found the Elite PhotoArt Gallery, where one of our student’s work was on display…Robert Weston Breshears. He had a set of his journalistic style images from Afganistan and Pakistan, which were on stretched canvas, prominently on display. Stepping next door, we entered the Art + Design Gallery, which is hosted by the Art + Design Department at Missouri State Unveristy, where I earned by bachelor’s in photography and media. The senior exhibit was hanging, so that was great to see current student work. I wish we had a gallery this nice when I was a student there! While in the gallery, I was talking with the gallery director, who turned out to be a good friend and former photography classmate my those early college days…a day of surprises…I hadn’t seen her since the early 1980s!

Eventually Wilson and I wondered down the street to make images. Downtown Springfield has changed somewhat since I was there years ago, but I recognized the buildings. This image below of the Gailey’s Cafe and former drug store (part of the Seville Hotel) was located just down from Ozark Camera, where I used to hang out as a college student and where I bought my first Nikon.

© 2009 Terry Ownby

A couple of weeks ago during our Spring Break, myself and my two friends (Wilson and Tom, also photo professors at UCM) ventured back to the Flint Hills but this time we also took along with us 9 photography students. The best part for me was the very first day hiking the backcountry trails at the Tall Grass National Prairie Preserve, near Strong City, Kansas. I think this is one of my favorite places in the U.S. to visit. Being out on the prairie where you can see for miles and hear nothing but wind, birds, swaying grass and your own heartbeat is fabulous! I’m looking forward to going back in early summer when the grass is green and a bit taller. Until then, I have my photos to give me solace. The image below is of Spring Hill Ranch, taken on my return from the backcountry.

© 2009 Terry Ownby

The old army fort in eastern Kansas was called Fort Scott and was originally constructed in 1842. There were no walls built around this pioneer army post since three sides consisted of natural, steep bluffs, with the southern side opened to the expanse of the tall grass prairie. This old army post was the last destination for Wilson and I on our short road trip last week through SW Missouri and SE Kansas. Eleven years after its founding, the Army abandoned the fort in 1853 and its buildings became the center of a new frontier town, bearing the old fort’s namesake: Fort Scott, Kansas. This would later become the hometown for renowned African American photographer, Gordon Parks.

This is a great small town photo destination. The main street area, which joins the old fort structure, has great 1800s architecture, which has been nicely restored. Lots of interesting antique stores and boutique shops occupy the storefronts. Also, as with any of my road trips, I found a really cool diner from 1946 that is still in operation, complete with its nifty neon signage…Nu Grille Cafe. My photo compadre enjoyed a really big cheeseburger and I sampled the Frito chili pie, for about five bucks. Cheap but good! After chowing down supper at the greasy spoon, we headed back to UCM, which is maybe a couple of hours drive…I really lose track of time on the road, but it was dark! But lack of light never stops Wilson from creating images! As you can see posted below, he pushes the envelop of image making with any amount of electromagnetic radiation he can find. In this case, minimal ambient light from the dusky sunset and the truck dashlights!

© 2009 Terry Ownby

© 2009 Wilson Hurst

My search for incongruities continues. I started photographing odd and large culturally significant objects about five years ago and doubt if I’ll ever grow tired of this quest. Two years ago I went to a technology convention at Pittsburg State University in southeast Kansas. One of my traveling companions, Wilson, had discovered the existence of Big Brutus and had suggested that we photograph it for my series. We weren’t sure where it was located and time at the convention prevented us from tracking it down. However, this past weekend, he and I had the opportunity to travel to Joplin, MO, to drop off our images that had been accepted for inclusion at the George A. Spiva Center for the Arts‘ annual national photo competition.

On our return trip, we decided to drift over the stateline and explore southeast Kansas. As we were heading north, we suddenly spotted a small sign telling passersby that Big Brutus was just 13 miles off the beaten path. Well, with no timeline or agenda, your intrepid wanderers were off on a new adventure! We did indeed find the brute, but only after stumbling onto another magnificant photo op at a local train club having their meeting. They had refurbished train depots, all kinds of trains, including passenger cars and some really cool cabooses. Anyway, on to brutus. Big Brutus is a monster! The world’s second largest electric coal shovel, it towers 16 stories (160 feet) with a boom that is 150 feet long. The bucket on this behemoth has a capacity of 150 tons (enough to fill three railroad cars). Needless to say, Big Brutus is BIG! Additionally, the non-profit organization running the Big Brutus operation had a really BIG fee to go inside the fence for a closer look. Needless to say, we weren’t going to partake in their highway robbery, so we pulled out our BIG lenses and shot from the parking lot!!!

© 2009 Terry Ownby

Last weekend was the opening reception for the Menage a Trois II Exhibition at the Watson Studio Gallery in Johnson City, just outside of Austin, Texas. Carol Watson, the gallery owner, was kind enough to post a video of the opening reception. Within 30 seconds of the beginning of the video, you will see the camera pan across my three images on display there: Tall Rancher, SuperMan, and Big John.

Opening Reception

Some images work well in and of themselves and need no supporting cast, whether that be text, audio, or other images. Yet other times, images seem to tell a better story when grouped as a package, as viewers sometimes find in photo stories or photo essays found in newspapers or magazines. But photojournalistic stories are not what I what to write about tonight. (Although I am a huge fan of W. Eugene Smith’s photo stories in Life magazine!)

Grouping images in pairs or trios is the topic instead. Specifically I am referring to diptychs and triptychs. In this blog I have already posted several diptychs, but tonight it’s about triptychs. The word triptych comes from an early writing tablet used by the Romans in which there was one central writing panel flanked by additional panels left and right, which were hinged to the central one. Eventually this configuration was adopted by early Christian artists and was used for both paintings and carved reliefs, such as the Byzantine Harbaville Triptych from the 10th century CE.

Today many photographers group photos as either diptychs or triptychs, including yours truly. Recently I had the opportunity to enter an international photo competition in Texas and the theme centered around groups of three (read triptych here). The exhibition is called Menage a Trois II , which comes from the French expression ménage à trois, meaning “household of three”. While typically this references a three-way sexual affair, which is not the case here for this exhibition at the Watson Studio Gallery, located not far from Austin, Texas. (However, for an excellent read, try Ernest Hemingway’s In the Garden of Eden, which I read during my grad school days.)

The triptych of images below are the ones accepted for the juried exhibition at the Texas art gallery. The images are: Tall Rancher, SuperMan, and Big John.

© 2009 Terry Ownby

Yesterday was cold, cloudy, and foggy. It’s day’s like that which provide great light and it’s usually incredibily soft. This kind of light is great when it comes through windows of old houses like the one I live in. I love the way it bounces off doors and walls and gently cascades down the stairs. So when I turned around in my office chair and say the light playing in the hallway, I had to stop what I was doing and pull out the camera to start shooting. I never tire of the way light bounces through old hallways and I’ve been chasing this type of light since my undergrad days back in the early 1980s.

Once I felt I had explored enough of what was happening in the hallway, I stepped down on the stair landing and started shooting out the window that overlooks my neighbor’s old house. Again the soft light and hoarfrost clinging to the trees were photographic delights. Who says you have to travel to far-off exotic locales to create images? One needs to be able to create work close to home because it’s all in our personal vision. The most exotic places on earth aren’t going to give you beautiful images if you have no personal vision and being able to see the light. Ultimately, it all comes back to the light and how we interact with this magical substance. I’ve been chasing light now for 35 years and never tire of the pursuit.

© 2008 Terry Ownby

© 2008 Terry Ownby

Four years ago I began a series of images that came to be through happenstance. In other words, I simply stumbled onto some unlikely situations as they presented themselves to me and I leveraged the photographic opportunity to my creative advantage. Since that serendipitous moment, I have actively sought out similar objects to photograph and so far, I’ve been nicely rewarded with different photographic opportunities.

I’m a big fan of taking road trips throughout the United States (something my father inflicted me with at an early age!) and these trips target my found American cultural objects. The thing is, these pop cultural objects are incongruous with their surroundings or sometimes just life in general. Americans seem infatuated with the notion that “bigger is better” and thus construct these larger-than-life edifices to commemorate this “bigness”.

On a recent trip to Nashville, home of the Grand Ole Opry, I intentionally detoured my road trip to the small Ohio River town of Metropolis, Illinois, home of America’s number one super hero—Superman. I’ve been here numerous times with my folks when I was a kid and had not been back in nearly 40 years, so I was very happy to see Superman still stood next to the court house. But to my surprise, I found another giant in town, Big John, standing vigilantly outside the Big John grocery store. What a deal…two giants for the price of one!

Superman, © 2008, Terry Ownby.

Big John, © 2008, Terry Ownby

So this past Saturday I went to my long-time friend’s place out in the country, near Rocheport, Missouri. His name is David and I’ve known him since the mid-80s, when I was a graduate student at Webster University-Saint Louis. We are both commercial photographers by profession, and we worked together in a large studio in downtown St. Louis. I remember many times after a frustrating day in the studio, he and I would head off to the Central West End or out near Union Station to hoist a brewski or two. Although I think two or three of my favorite outings with him were for food, if you could call it that! One tavern (maybe Larry’s Tavern???) we used to visit served a dish called something like a “Flinger”….a plate full of chili, criss-cross fries, onions, and other stuff I don’t remember. Although on the other hand, he and I, and sometimes the rest of the studio gang would go to O.T. Hodges Chile Parlor and have a “Slinger”…which hasn’t changed in over 20 years….two cheeseburgers on a plate, smothered in chili with hashbrowns and a fried egg on top! Another favorite dive David and I used to visit was in St. Louis’ “Dogtown”, an Irish enclave. The joint was McDermott’s Tavern, now known as Pat’s Bar & Grill. Here, we used to get longneck bottles of Busch beer and deep-fried chicken livers with toast tips. Man, I look back at my grad days diet and it’s no wonder I ended up with stomach problems!!!

Anyway, after grad school David and I parted ways, but not our friendship. I moved up to Wisconsin were I photographed cheese, sausage, and chocolate for over 13 years. During that time, David flew away and spent time in England. We occassionaly hooked up during that time, like canoe camping up in the far north.  Eventually he moved back to central Missouri and spent a number of years in Columbia restoring his antique cars and then finally building his really cool, eclectic silver “folly” of a house out past Rocheport.

About two and half years ago, I was fortunate to land a full-time professor gig at the University of Central Missouri were I teach in the photography program. Turns out we’re only a bit over an hour drive time from each other! David is a marvelous host in that about twice a year he has these “gatherings” at his place. Old friends and new ones all converge on his place for an afternoon of great eats, like in “pot luck” and of course beer and wine. What’s interesting at these gatherings are his eclectic mix of friends. I always thought it was cool that I had known David for over 20 years, but this past Saturday I met some of his friends who’ve known him over 30 years. Wow! It’s always an interesting mix of people, mostly artist types and numerous professors from MU, Columbia College, or Stephens College. These gatherings are always a blast and this time he added to it by having an artist setup a kiln in the backyard and guests got to fire their pottery! Sadly, I had to leave before David fired up the grill in the evening for some imported British style “bangers and mash“. So, the moral here is life is good, when you have good friends, good food, and an excellent day in the country!

Dr. Gene Robertson on left wearing ballcap, David sitting in middle with blue shirt, my sweetheart sitting in back wearing pink, and some other artists from MU that I don’t remember their names, unfortunately!

Removing pottery from kiln in David’s backyard.