Tornado Plate #75

“Wow, this work is just painful”.

Perhaps no property symbolizes the resurgence of East Capital Avenue in Jefferson City as much as the building at the corner of East Capital and Lafayette Street. Formerly a small state office building that had changed agencies several times, it was purchased by private individuals who developed it into Avenue HQ, a cultural event space used for exhibitions, workshops, classes, performances, etc. My own work was displayed there a couple-three times. There was a bar downstairs that hosted music, including a cool performance by Hilary Scott. This space out back was host to a food trucks festival each month.

It was torn to pieces by the tornado. The quote above is from a friend who helped take what valuables could be retrieved from the building in the days following the storm. In all, its owner was revitalizing five properties on East Capital. Every one of them got hit. Her plans are to rebuild.

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For photographers and damn photo artists, this work demonstrates the benefits and pitfalls of working in the infrared scale. The sky, the buildings, the details - all perfect. The sign that something is askew is in the trailer behind the building, which is actually a food truck. That’s a bright yellow vehicle, folks, and in this work it comes out nearly black. That’s because infrared excludes some colors while saturating others. If I had used a static technique or pushed to the far-infrared side of the scale, the vehicle would have been truer to color, but the buildings would have been bleached and the detail lost. If I’d isolated just the vehicle and filtered it differently it would have seemed incongruous with the rest of the work. It comes together as a great example of photo art, with the emphasis on ‘art’. The point is capturing emotion.

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​NOTE: Fifteen of these works depicting Jefferson City, Missouri’s May 22 tornado damage have been compiled into an artbook, which may be viewed and purchased at Capital Arts in Jefferson City, or purchased on this website in either 10-inch paperback or signed 12-inch hardcover.