Matt Blazemattblaze@federate.social
Oct 15, 2026, 3:29 PMStone House (with Sofa), Harvard, CA, 2010
All the pixels, some repairs required, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/4611078542
Replies
- Matt Blazemattblaze@federate.socialOct 15, 2026, 3:30 PM
Captured with a DSLR and a 24mm shifting lens, shifted vertically to preserve geometry.
The tiny ghost town of Harvard is one of a series of sometimes extravagantly named, but now largely abandoned, communities near the Union Pacific Railroad and former Route 66 in the Mojave. Most of these tiny towns became forgotten victims of an upgraded Interstate highway system that passed them by.
I think the couch may still be there, if you need one for cheap.
- Matt Blazemattblaze@federate.socialOct 15, 2026, 3:30 PM
The natural landscape of the American west has stunning and unique beauty almost everywhere you look, but when I'm out there I usually find my camera drawn more to the built world we attempt to superimpose on it.
- Matt Blazemattblaze@federate.socialOct 15, 2026, 3:30 PM
I think it was in making this photo that I understood better Picasso's famous comment that art is "a lie that tells the truth". I don't actually know the story of this little house, but in photographing it, I think I tell a version of it that is both literal and fanciful.
Abraxas3d W5NYVabraxas3d@mastodon.radioOct 15, 2026, 3:43 PM@mattblaze I don't know how many times I've dragged my camera along on a trip with a clear mandate (from myself) to do the Canonical Thing involving the Official Stuff...
and then ended up with a card full of something like macro photos of pill bugs escaping a soda can, or a Ziploc wedged in a saguaro.
The intrusions are most interesting at the seams.