Triplett, Missouri

We are back in the very small town of Triplett, Missouri.  Before finding the opera house and talking with the farmer who owned it, described in my last post, I first stopped at this church on a corner of the highway through town.  I didn't find much to photograph on the front of the church, but this scene on the back side captured my eye.  The graceful arc of the silver, painted handrail glides effortlessly over the harsh but worn geometry of the staircase.  I don't make as many "standalone" images these days, having gravitate towards a more editorial approach in my photography, but this is one of the few images from the trip to northern Missouri that I would describe as standalone.

The opera house, the farmer, the desk and its contents

Back in October I took a two day photography trip up into northern Missouri.  Northern Boone, Macon, Randolph, Chariton, and Livingston counties were all on my agenda.  I took a chance on a tiny town called Triplett and drove the deserted streets looking for something to photograph.  I was astounded when I found a large, uniquely-shaped brick structure in fairly good condition, situated on what might have been Main Street.  I stopped to photograph the exterior when a combine and pickup truck slowly entered the building through a garage door on the side.  I spoke to the drivers of both and found out that they were a father and son who owned the building and who used it to store their farm equipment.  They told me that it was formerly an opera house, but could not recall the original name.  We went inside and I was able to take a few interior photos while the father told me what he knew about the history of the building and its contents.  Among the contents was a high legged desk. We opened the drawer of the desk and pulled out several documents and various items of ephemera.  One such item was this Christmas greeting card, dated 1923.  I carefully photographed the card while the farmer held it, using the light from the garage opening to illuminate it.  In this post I am only including the photograph of the handheld card, because it seems to be the most singular image of the five or six that I made while I was there.  In the next blog post I am going to post several of the photos together, in editorial fashion, in order to tell the entire story of the discovery.

Clarksburg, MO

There used to be much more to Clarksburg.  I came here several times in the late 1990s and early 2000s.  At least two buildings from this block of stores are gone.  The portion of the building on the far right used to be a general merchandise store that a great grandfather of mine either owned or worked in...back in the early 1900s.  After Clarksburg his family moved on to Sedalia, Missouri.

Malta Bend as it was

This building formerly stood alongside 65 highway in the center of Malta Bend.  We drove by as we were heading back from an October visit to the orchards in Waverly, and I stopped to take a few photos.  For a while there was an art gallery on the first floor, and later an antique store.  I drove by the same spot back in April, on my way back from Iowa, and the building was gone. 

Laddonia in the sun

Laddonia, Missouri.  North and east of Columbia in Audrain county.  I've posted a couple images from this town on the blog before, but both were in color and taken from somewhere down the street.  This one is one of my earliest images from Laddonia, but it is also in keeping with my recently rediscovered fascination with panoramic images of small town main streets.  This image epitomizes my quest.  From locals I garnered that the building in the middle was once a bank.  It provides a nice, visual fulcrum to the rest of the mass of this downtown block of buildings.  And the late afternoon sunlight raking across the surfaces was more than I could pass up.  I haven't been back to photograph in Laddonia since 2010, but I have a feeling it hasn't changed much.  And I mean that in the best way.

Main Street, Bunceton

A bird's eye view of the upper stories of Bunceton, Missouri.  I had the fortune to stop there during a road trip in mid-November.  I was attracted to this scene because of the architectural authenticity of the buildings on main street.  There has been very little revision here, and it is not often that you find a small town with nearly all of its downtown in such a vintage, if sadly disrepaired, state.