From my original Dixie Furniture Plant post back on March 12th, I had a few more dramatic abandoned landscapes I wanted to share. The black & white compositions followed my typical b&w workflow which includes process with Alien Skin’s Exposure 7 to emulate Agfa APX 100 b&w film. The color image was processed to emulate Kodachrome slide film.
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Cheers,
C. S.
Dixie Furniture was established in the town of Lexington, North Carolina in 1901. It eventually became Lexington Furniture and at its peak, covered 9 city blocks. Global outsourcing eventual forced the closure of most manufacturing facilities in the state. This post features exteriors of Plant 1, the original Dixie Furniture facility, which was closed in 2003.
While processing the images in this post, I was reminded of my former career as a commercial photographer working in several of High Point, NC’s many home furnishing photography studios. This was between 1986 and 1991. In these warehouse size studios, dozens of room scenes were arranged, furniture brought in and finally propped and accessorized by an interior designer. Afterwards, the photographer would light the set, shoot test shots and shoot finals once approved. Several times I worked on Lexington Furniture catalog projects.
In the early 90’s, I started my own multimedia business and would later go on to produce an interactive CD-ROM for Lexington Furniture’s Arnold Palmer Collection. Working as an IT Project Manager since 2000, I’m slowly making my way back to photography. I would love to have a look inside Plant 1, but with all the windows boarded up, there is likely little natural lighting to work with.
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This post is a continuation of my exploration of the old North Winston neighborhood of Winston-Salem, NC. Here, the long steady decline in tobacco and textile manufacturing, along with many other factors, has led to wide spread urban decay. North Patterson Ave & Glenn Ave intersect at an extreme angle leaving a narrow triangular block on the southern side. The whole block is abandoned and in ruin. I found several opportunities to capture the ironic beauty lurking in urban decay.
Traveling to the beach this summer, I took the back roads for the last leg of our trip in hopes of finding some interesting photo ops. I was particularly interested in capturing the character of old small town buildings & structures. Following Highway 904 along the North Carolina, South Carolina border, I was finally rewarded when we reached Tabor City.
While turning a corner downtown, the side of Mama’s Restaurant caught my eye. I knew this was the opportunity I was looking for. The old plaster breaking away from older brick provided great textural contrast and subject matter. The old “retro”exhaust fan was a particularly interesting subject. As mentioned on my portfolio site, commercial properties seem to be more susceptible to neglect & decay. Ironically though, the facade of Mama’s Restaurant has been restored and is well kept. I suspect there were several business that came and went long before Mama’s. These images have been added to my Commercial and Industrial Decay Gallery.
Continuing the workflow used for the images in my previous post, I further refined the composite of layers by adding a subtle black outline layer above the painted effect layer. The base layer photo was processed to emulate Kodachrome 25 slide film. I’m also increasing the size of my images from 600 px on the long edge to 700. This should help folks see a little more detail. Of course, to see a higher resolution image, you can click on the image. If you’re new to WordPress, you can like this post by clicking on the post date below the title. You should see a “Like” button at the bottom of the post. I hope you enjoy and would love to also hear your thoughts and comments.
