*monika
we have wipers
This is Moe’s Super Lube. You’ve seen it before — or you’ve seen a shop so very much like it that it makes no difference. You’ve seen it, but odds are you didn’t photograph it. And why would you? Sure, it’s a slightly foggy day, and fog is always romantic and mysterious — but how romantic and mysterious can Moe’s Super Lube be?
So why? Why photograph this building?
I’ll tell you why. Because this photograph isn’t a photograph of Moe’s Super Lube. It’s a photograph of everything in the frame. The Taco Bell, the single tree in the distance, the telephone poles and the gentle curves of the power lines, the Quality Inn, the cars in the lot. This is a photograph of the lives of the men and women who work at Moe’s Super Lube, and drive those eight-year-old sedans, and rent a room at night at the Comfort Inn, and maintain those power lines, and grab a cheap-ass burrito at Taco Bell. This is a photograph of a community of workers and the lives they lead.
You can look at this photo, see Moe’s Super Lube, and shrug — or you can look at every inch of the densely-packed world within the frame, and get a hint of those lives. Most people think of photography as an act of looking and pointing. It’s not; it’s an act of framing. It’s a decision about what should be in the frame and what shouldn’t. Most people see one subject in the photograph, and their interest gradually dissipates as their eye moves toward the edge of the frame. For most people, the edges of a photograph are always in the fog.
Not here. Not in this photograph. In this photograph, not even the fog is in the fog. In this photograph, everything matters. We have wipers. It’s not just an advertisement; it’s an assertion of Truth. Moe’s Super Lube has wipers.
Blog photograph copyrighted to the photographer and used with permission by utata.org. All photographs used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and are obtained via the flickr API. Text is copyrighted to the author, greg fallis and is used with permission by utata.org. Please see Show and Share Your Work
