Views from the Parking Garage
Dark. Dank. Dirty. Perhaps not generally dangerous, but the heart races a little faster and we look over our shoulder as we navigate their spaces outside the protection of our locked, steel cocoons. They are necessary evils in our urban lives; temporary spaces through which we must pass and pay exorbitant sums to temporarily house our vehicles while we work, shop, dine or do other civilized things. We are in. We are out ̶ eager to escape to the real reason for our visit.
Parking garages are utilitarian creations. Built once and left to decay. No remodeling, no renovations, no lovingly applied fresh coats of paint when they start to show signs of age. Day after day they accumulate more grease, more grime, more texture, more character.
Photographers' eyes are trained to see beauty in unconventional spaces when they pause to look. But pausing in the parking garage is not often done. Each of these images is shot in a state of mild fear; alone (or so I hope) with the cars, puddles, peeling paint, chipped concrete and oil slicks. Am I being watched? Am I being stalked? Is anyone lingering behind that car? But the intrigue of shadow and light, texture and form, stops me. I need to capture that moment of specialness when the parking garage is transformed into a work of art.
With trepidation, I surreptitiously pull out my phone camera ̶ so discrete, a sideways glance, a quick-slow pause before I'm gone. To shoot these images with a large format camera, or even a 35mm would be a different act. It would be a bold, confident ownership of space. It would announce my presence and proclaim power over the fear. Instead, let the fear, the dark, the mysterious and the crazy moments of perfection live on for me to capture with a passionate glance ̶ and with a second glance, over my shoulder, to make sure I am still, indeed, safe and alone.
Dwelling on this reveals a curious reversal: In this act, I become that person I fear. The one lingering in the space where people don't linger, lurking in the shadows, casting furtive glimpses over the shoulder while engaged in illicit acts.
