NEPA At Night

I grew up in the old coal regions of Northeast Pennsylvania. (For a little background, check out this post from April of last year.)

In 2014, I spent more time in NEPA than I expected too. A trip up in the spring, a trip up with the kids to visit their grandparents in the summer.

Then October hit. A short overnight stay for me turned into a week when a simple medical routine on my dad showed blockages of his heart valves, leading to bypass surgery. I went back up again in November. The colorful leaves I had seen in October were off the trees and the early teeth of winter were being bared.

I was up there for another five days, helping out my Mom, keeping an eye on my Dad whose recovery has been slow. While there, though, I took some time to become reacquainted with the area where I spent my first 18 years. Some evenings, I’d go out with my camera, drive around the small nearby towns (Forty-Fort, Kingston, Edwardsville) and the city of Wilkes-Barre to see what I could see. And it’s always interesting to see things at night….

Diane Arbus once famously said: “I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn’t photograph them.” I’ve been told some of my photos are like that. “Wow, I’d have never thought to have taken a picture of that” is what I get sometimes.

I don’t know why I shoot what I shoot sometimes. A car wash in Forty Fort? The light looked cool to me. A laundromat in Luzerne? Again, the light, the Pepsi station inside. A bit noir-ish to me, like something out of a David Goodis story.

I think it’s true – you can’t go home again. Life is a like a river. A river keeps flowing and while it doesn’t move, it’s never the same river. You dip your toe into it in 1988 and by 2014, it’s a different river. Things change. Yes, some stay the same but as we change, it changes our perception of things.

And sometimes, now, I have to bring my camera up and document what I see. Because maybe the next time I’m there, things will be different again.

© Mark V. Krajnak | JerseyStyle Photography | All Rights Reserved 2015

Tags: B&W, car wash, Casino, Credit Union, documentary, Edwardsville, Forty Fort, Kingston, Luzerne Laundro, NEPA, night, Northeast PA, Travel, Urban Landscape, Wilkes-Barre

• January 8, 2015
• Beautiful Light, Black & White, Documentary, Travel, Urban Landscapes
• 4 Comments