Images and Artifacts

The Crim Theater, Kilgore, Texas

2011-12-21T11:23:00.000-08:00

The Crim Theater in downtown Kilgore, Texas. Built in the 1930s during the East Texas oil boom, it now sits empty, next to the cable television office and the former Kilgore National Bank building.

On the Road to Nac

2011-12-09T16:53:00.000-08:00

On Highway 259, just north of Nacogdoches, Texas

The Painting

2011-12-07T05:10:00.000-08:00

A short film I did recently, more to come.

2011-11-06T05:36:00.000-08:00

Dawn on the Gulf of Mexico at Texas A&M - Corpus Christi. The O'Connoer Building photographed for Oniplan Architects.

King Spa and Sauna

2011-08-09T16:30:00.000-07:00

The King Spa and Sauna, Royal Lane, Dallas, Texas. One of those strange sights we pass everyday and that say one day we will stop to make a photograph on an early morning.

Website Update

2011-07-27T08:59:00.000-07:00

I have updated my website with a dozen new images from the University of Texas Southwestern medical Center Phase 5, photographed for Omniplan. Thanks to Amanda for the assignment, Ron for all his help and Daniel Mendenhall for assisting on the interiors.

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Phase 5

2011-07-04T11:34:00.000-07:00

I am photographing the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Phase 5, for Omniplan this month.

Photo Books

2011-06-10T13:40:00.000-07:00

My two photo books, Dallas,Texas - A Photographic Portrait and Fort Worth, Texas - A PhotographicPortrait are available from the publisher, Twin Lights, as well as Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and Borders Books.

Fireplace Lounge

2011-06-04T11:33:00.000-07:00

The Fireplace Lounge on Samuel Blvd., in East Dallas. A classic roadhouse, but in the city across the street from a golf course.

Former Urban Theater, Dallas, Texas

2011-06-04T11:25:00.000-07:00

The former Urban Theater, 7124 Military Parkway, Dallas, TX 75227, which now serves as a laundromat.

New Architectural Portfolio

2011-05-24T07:23:00.000-07:00

Architecture - Images by Peter Calvin

Intersection, Near Guthrie, Kentucky

2011-05-11T11:30:00.000-07:00

Intersection of US 41 and US 79, west of Guthrie, Kentucky.

Mobile Site

2011-04-30T16:09:00.000-07:00

You can now visit my website with your mobile device and not get the dreaded "you don't have Flash" message. I built it with the iFolios Wordpress template, and help from Bryan at iFolios and Rory at Silvertype. (Silvertype hosts my site.)

I have also added architectural and editorial portfolios to my Photoshelter archive.

Repurposed Movie Theater

2011-04-21T08:41:00.000-07:00

The Ark of Safety Holiness Church, Singleton Blvd., Dallas, Texas

Economic Abandonment

2011-03-15T06:50:00.000-07:00

A former AMC Theater recently closed in Dallas near I35 and Walnut Hill Lane.

Denton Drive, Dallas, Texas

2011-03-12T10:40:00.000-08:00

Denton Drive, between Royal and Walnut Hill Lanes

The Tyler Roughnecks from 2001

2011-03-04T06:02:00.000-08:00

The Tyler Roughnecks were a minor league team playing out of Mike Carter Field in Tyler, TX when I photographed them on a warm Sunday. The hands are the catcher's, Ronnie Deck. He is currently the bullpen catcher for the Baltimore Orioles. More of the Roughnecks and Mike Carter Field can be seen here.

Portraits - Body and Soul

2011-02-01T10:09:00.000-08:00

Jazz guitarist Jim Shannon - his website - This image is part of a new project, portraits of jazz musicians, each playing the the same tune, Body and Soul, a standard written in 1930 by Edward Heyman, Robert Sour, Frank Eyton and Johnny Green. Good references would be Coleman Hawkins improvised version recorded in 1939 and recordings by Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughn.

Portraits

2011-01-15T14:42:00.000-08:00

A client asked me to make some portraits of their staff. Simple lighting: a battery powered Elinchrom shot through a white umbrella, balanced with the window light. (Steven Goss, Principal at Blackbird Studio Architects in Dallas)

2010-12-28T15:28:00.000-08:00

Locker rooms, Bishop Lynch High School, Dallas, Texas

Exhibition at Amarillo College

2010-12-23T17:24:00.000-08:00

I have a solo exhibit coming up at Amarillo College's Southern Light Gallery, 2011 W. Washington Street in Amarillo, TX. The show will run from January 18th to February 19th. It is recent work from the Built Environment series, all Texas images.

Casa Linda Theater, Dallas, Texas

2010-12-15T15:47:00.000-08:00

The Casa Linda Theater, Dallas, Texas. Once part of the McClendon chain of indoor and drive-in movie theaters, it has been closed since 1999 and it is unlikely that it will ever show movies again.

Update 12/24/10: The theater is now scheduled to become a grocery store. Colorado based Natural Grocers has leased the space and is expected to open in April of 2011.

Former Braniff Airline Headquarters, Love Field, Dallas, Texas

2010-12-11T18:57:00.000-08:00

I have been passing this for years. I shot photos inside when Braniff was in business, covered the Caulder plane, the first Braniff Concord flight and flown on Braniff regularly to Mexico.

The former Braniff International Airways headquarters at Love Field in Dallas, Texas. It spent some time as Dalfort Aerospace, but has been empty since 2003. It has a 6-bay hangar, covering 13,000 sq. m. (140,000 sq. ft.) can accommodate 6 narrow-body aircraft. Its shops, warehouses and administrative offices occupy an area of 33,445 sq. m. (360,000 sq. ft). Tom Braniff's airline opened up air travel to Latin America and commissioned Alexander Caulder paint one of their planes in the 1973. (A model of that plane now sits in the Frontiers of Flight Museum also located at Love Field.)

Heat and Control Building, Flower Mound, Texas

2010-11-30T07:23:00.000-08:00

Sometimes the best images are the last of the day, the less obvious becomes obvious, and the eye discovers what was always there. (Heat and Control Building, Flower Mound, TX, for Blackbird Studio Architects)

Chapel in Lewisville, Texas

2010-11-20T17:55:00.000-08:00

image link

Infrastructure

2010-11-15T12:46:00.000-08:00

New construction over Loop 12, Irving, Texas

After the Demolition

2010-11-07T18:02:00.000-08:00


The former site of Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas. The stadium was demolished after the Dallas Cowboys moved to Arlington this season. I photographed this site a year ago before the the stadium was imploded.(link)

Dallas from the Parking Garage

2010-10-23T13:28:00.000-07:00

I have been looking at the city from the parking garage when I arrive to teach at the UCD for Texas A&M-Commerce. Last Thursday I finally made some photographs from there while I sent my class out to shoot the city at night. Billboard style advertising, acres of asphalt and concrete, and the flat North Texas landscape beyond the city center.
image links: 1, 2

2010-10-11T18:22:00.000-07:00

Somewhere along US 69 in Oklahoma on the way back from the Society for Photographic Education South Central Conference at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. image link

Agrophilia

2010-09-11T17:58:00.000-07:00

Recently, I have been rereading J.B. Jackson. In his Discovering the Vernacular Landscape there is a short chapter titled “Agrophilia, or the Love of Horizontal Places” I am seeing some of the things I have been looking at with a camera. In it he talks about change in the landscape, how aspects of the rural and urban landscapes become obsolete. He says that there is a “culture of environmental change, a pattern of decisions worth exploring” and that he American landscape is a horizontal one, one that is different than the European.

New Work

2010-09-04T19:01:00.000-07:00

I am continuing to look at the flat, open spaces around North Texas, particularly vacant lots and what is adjacent to them. These near the intersection of the LBJ Freeway and I35.

Looking at the Landscape Over Time

2010-08-28T17:50:00.000-07:00

I am preparing an image maker presentation for the Society for Photographic Education South Central Regional Conference in October titled "Don't Lose Your Way". The black and white image above will be the first in the Keynote slide show, one that I made as an undergraduate at Ohio University. I had hitchhiked to Cincinnati where I saw this expanse of asphalt and the row of older Ohio industrial city style homes at the top of the frame. The thing is, I am still looking at these things today. I have returned to look at the landscape in much the same way I did then, I have found my way back. The image below was made last year in downtown Dallas, a parking lot with the W Hotel, high rise condos and four story apartments that surround the American Airlines Center.

The End of Kodachrome

2010-07-29T08:43:00.000-07:00

Leicas and Kodachrome: Kodak has stopped manufacturing the iconic film after 75 years and the last Kodachrome lab, located in Kansas, will shut down at the end of the year. I shot thousands of rolls of Kodachrome both for personal work and while on assignment. It was my favorite tool for color work, but today I don't really miss it. Digital capture provides me more control and flexibility, particularly when working on location. But there was something about looking at those slides on the light box.

More on the End of Kodachrome here and here

(images: Wurlitzer jukebox from the Hard Rock Cafe collection, San Juan de Dios Market in Guadalajara, Dairy farmer near Big Sandy, Texas)

Architecture

2010-06-29T19:47:00.000-07:00

Architecture in Black and White - Images by Peter Calvin

The Fourth of July in Texas

2010-06-29T17:02:00.000-07:00

Something for the Fourth of July: a fireworks stand on I30 between Dallas and Commerce, Texas.

2010-06-18T20:52:00.000-07:00

The closed Mission Four Outdoor Theatre, Roosevelt Ave., San Antonio, Texas

Diners

2010-06-15T09:41:00.000-07:00

Dallas, Texas

Guthrie, Kentucky

The Style Station

2010-06-02T09:15:00.000-07:00

One of the most neglected photographic accessories is the brake pedal on your car. I have been passing the Style Station on Interstate 35 south of Dallas for a couple of years and finally stopped to make a photograph. They sell vintage clothing and seem to collect Toyota minivans from the 80's.

Mission San Jose, San Antonio, Texas

2010-05-26T03:44:00.000-07:00

Mission San Jose, San Antonio, Texas, restored in the 1930s as a WPA project and monetized in the present.

DART Light Rail

2010-05-06T07:07:00.000-07:00

As a continuation of my exploration of the built environment, I have been photographing the DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) light rail construction and thinking about the possible changes in the landscape around it. The image here runs parallel to the existing highways, bypassing businesses and dividing the landscape it runs through. Businesses will close, others will open and how society interacts with the landscape will be altered.

There is a history of transportation changes altering communities. A a string of towns runs between Shreveport, LA. and Dallas, Texas that were railroad town in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The automobile and US Highway 80 changed that, and eventually many of these towns were bypassed all together by the interstate highway a few miles from the town centers. In Dallas, the demise of the trolly system closed businesses and even churches, who depended on public transit and had no parking facilities. link to images

Signs of the Economy

2010-04-27T06:46:00.000-07:00

42 acres at the corner of Walnut Hill and US 75, Central Expressway in Dallas, Texas. A large apartment complex was demolished to make room for an ambitious mixed-use, high end development. The land has been taken back by the lenders and they are trying to sell it to recover the more than $40 million they have invested in it. link to image

Main St. Theater in Nacogdoches, TX

2010-04-18T13:57:00.000-07:00

Here is another of these closed cinemas, this one in Nacogdoches, Texas. It is for lease and next door to a thrift shop. link to image

The Tyler Theater

2010-04-10T17:20:00.000-07:00

I have been photographing old movie theaters. My interest in them comes from Saturday mornings in downtown Youngstown, Ohio, and the 400-500 seat, single screen neighborhood theaters that are mostly gone in Dallas. (The Esquire, Delman, Wilshire, Granada, etc) The theater in this image is in Tyler, Texas, just off the square. It exists as only the facade, the interior is gone. link to image

Images in Texas Architect

2010-04-07T15:34:00.000-07:00

Texas Architect has published images I made of the Watermark Community Church for Omniplan in a portfolio of religious facilities. (page 66 of the March/April 2010 issue) You can see more work from the project here: http://www.petercalvin.com/archtecture.html

Executive Fitness in Dallas

2010-04-06T10:19:00.000-07:00

Hart's Military Training, US 75, North Central Expressway, Dallas, TX.

Possible keywords: executive training, corporate culture, militarism, competitiveness, machismo, football culture, butch, capitalism
link to image

Texas Stadium Awaits Demolition

2009-12-22T17:38:00.000-08:00

We dropped my wife off at the airport so she could visit family in Mexico and I stopped to shoot this on the way home: Texas Stadium in Irving, former home of the Dallas Cowboys awaiting demolition. Arlington down the road offered Cowboys owner Jerry Jones a better deal, including huge tax breaks so Irving in the end will soon have a vacant lot. You can just see downtown Dallas in the distance. Is this about politics? I don't know, but it is about winners and losers when communities bid (and bet) on sports franchises. link to image

Butler Institute of American Art 73rd. Mid-Year Exhibition

2009-07-19T11:59:00.000-07:00

I have had this image, Night Game, accepted into the Annual Juried Show: 73rd Mid-Year Exhibition at Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio. I am particularly pleased because my first photography class was at the Butler, a class that sent me on this journey with a camera. The show runs from June 28th to August 23rd.

What do we examine with our work?

2008-12-02T04:29:00.000-08:00

Recently, I have read a number of artist's statements and academic search announcements that talk about using art to examine art, or "lens-based media's ... relationship to representation" and "the nature of the image". Rather than use the medium to examine itself, I prefer to use photography to examine the world around us.

James Nachtwey's TED Prize project

2008-10-05T05:56:00.000-07:00

James Nachtwey's TED Prize project, a photo-documentary on extremely drug resistant TB, has been posted online here: www.xdrtb.org

The View from the Bleachers

2008-03-02T19:18:00.000-08:00

Kimball High School's baseball field during the North Dallas Tournament, March 1, 2008.

Bag News Notes

2008-01-21T07:05:00.000-08:00

Bag News Notes is a progressive blog that is "dedicated to the political, psychological, and media analysis of news images". Regardless of your political views, the author's choice of images and comments are worth a few minutes everyday. Here are links to work by Chicago based photographer Jon Lowenstein and political coverage by Alan Chin.

The Urban Canopy

2008-01-19T09:31:00.000-08:00

I have been including in my photographs the canopy that stands over our heads as part of our built environment. The utility poles and wires of older neighborhoods are being joined by microwave antennas and cell phone towers. The images above are of the athletic field at Dallas Lutheran High School and of the former Whole Foods Market at the intersection of Preston Rd and Forest Ln. in Dallas, TX.

Repurposed Gasoline Stations

2007-11-20T14:18:00.000-08:00

I think that part of my interest in repurposed gasoline stations is that they represent both a change and a constant in society. Not too long ago they were service stations, places that not only sold gasoline, but also repaired your car, sold tires and batteries and even supplied maps for your trip at no charge. The station owner's name was above the office door, though the big sign on the corner said Gulf or Esso, it was his business.

Today, with a few exceptions, we pump are own gas. If we interact with someone at a gas station it is to buy drinks, snacks, cigarettes or lottery tickets. Many of those former service stations provide the same services as before, they just don't sell gas. Others have become beer stores, bail bondman and hair salons. They represent another aspect of the disappearing, unfranchised landscape.

A little while after I started collecting these recycled gas stations, I was introduced to Edward Ruschas's Twenty-Six Gasoline Stations, and Jeff Brouws' homage, Twenty-Six Abandon gasoline Stations. These repurposed gasoline stations seem to be a logical and relevant extension of those earlier observations.

link to more repurposed gasoline stations

2007-11-20T14:05:00.000-08:00

Gasoline Station repurposed as Jake's White Trash and Pink Lemonade Coiffure, in Fort Worth, Texas.