While in my second term of working on my degree in Photography, two out of three of my classes were photography related. One was a Documentary Photography class. Why would a portrait photographer such as myself take a Documentary Photography class, you ask? That's a good question, thank you for asking! Well, as most of you know I've been doing portraits for a while and I consider myself pretty good at it, BUT I'm always looking for ways to be more innovative in my portraits and my style, so I've decided to look at other styles of photography and see what I can merge from each style into a style that is all my own. What I found in Documentary Photography is the world of "information". It's all about what information you can get out of your photo. "If somebody 50 years found a print of mine what information can they get out of that picture alone." That's the question our professor asked us over and over again. If she asked you why you included an object (for argument purposes let’s say a tree) in your photo and you said, "I thought it looked cool" or "it helped frame the subject" or anything remotely related to aesthetics, she'd have your head! This posed an interesting dilemma for me as an artist, but also as someone who "documents" weddings for a living. We're not just making beautiful photos for our clients. We are documenting their entire day and there is a lot of information to be captured as well as the beauty of it all. We're documenting all the details (flowers, place settings, invites, food, etc.), the attendees, and so much more! But at the same point it can't look like an evidence photo. Nobody wants to see a picture of their ring next to one of those CSI yellow right angle ruler thingies. Balance is the key! Balancing the highest amount of information with a photo that is also aesthetically pleasing to look at. Because the information doesn't matter if nobody wants to look at it!
So when it was time to work on a final project I went COMPLETLEY outside my comfort zone. I didn't have 6 weeks’ worth of weddings to shoot for this, so she asked us to think about something that interested us, intrigued us, or irritated us. Immediately I thought about something that irritated me. Anyone who lives here in DC knows that everywhere you go on the DC metro there's a broken escalator. Whether completely torn apart or just not moving. There have been escalators that have collapsed and ones that the breaks fail and they go out of control! At one stop all escalators started going up, so there was no way to go DOWN into the metro station. So weekend after weekend I traveled out to the metro to document as many broken escalators as I could find and why! Some things surprised me, some things didn't, but by the end I had a new knowledge about these escalators and series of pictures on Flickr (the site we use for class to turn in our photos) showcasing what I found.
The Washington Metro Area Transit Authority (WMATA) is a tri-jurisdictional government agency authorized by Congress, that operates transit service in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, including the Washington Metro and Metrobus. They have been accused several times of being negligent with their maintenance. In October 2010 an escalator at the L'Enfant Plaza station had its breaks malfunction causing it to accelerate out of control and injure 5 people. This sparked an independent audit to show why so many of them broke that often. Then, in February 2011 a Foggy Bottom Station Metro escalator completely collapsed, at the bottom, injuring three people. WMATA has put forth an action plan to improve the operation and safety of these escalators, including a full modernization of many of its escalators. The work at these stations involves the removal, refurbishment or replacement of all escalator parts including existing escalator steps, handrails, safety devices, and the electrical systems within the units. Each modernization should take approximately 12 weeks to complete.
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| A barrier stands in the way of an escalator at the Gallery Place/Chinatown Metro Station. A reusable sign has been posted explaining why the escalator is out of service and letting everyone know when the escalator is expecting to be back in service. This escalator is part of a wide spread modernization of most of the WMATA escalator system which will replace or refurbish every part of the escalator before opening it up for service. On the day of this photo 85 of the 588 metro escalators were down or broken. |
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| The light from overhead shines down on the drive motor of an escalator that is undergoing modernization and upgrade maintenance at Union Station. The right side of the picture shows the chain and wheels that allow the stairs to move up or down the escalator. On this day 78 escalators out of 588 on the DC metro were undergoing maintenance. |
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An escalator at the Metrocenter Station has had its stairs removed for modernization. The motors and drive wheels have been replaced and look like new. All visible pieces are clean of any grease or grime. On the the day of this photo 85 of the 588 metro escalators were down or broken. |
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All four escalators leading to the 4th street exit of the Judiciary Square Metro Station are out of order and blocked. Only two of the eight escalators in the station were operational. On this day 75 out of 588 escalators on the DC metro were down for service. |
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| The right hand escalator at the entrance to the Franconia-Springfield Metro Station has recently begun its modernization maintenance. Its hand rails are hanging loose from the drive wheels. A cable wrap lies in spiral on the grungy bottom of the escalator cavity. On this day 81 out of 588 escalators on the DC metro were down for service. |
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Only two of the three escalators remain at the Foggy Bottom Metro Station in Washington, DC. On February 18th, the bottom of the left hand escalator collapsed under three of the riders. It has since been completely removed. The plans posted nearby state that two of the escalators will be completely replaced with new escalators and one will be replaced with stairs over the next year. On the day of this photo 85 of the 588 metro escalators were down or broken. |
You can see the full set HERE.
I would like to especially thank a good friend, fellow Hoosier (person from Indiana), and a documentarian/wikipedian herself, Sarah Stierch for helping me get some exposure to this project by adding it to her site, The Culture Feed and allowing me to get over 200 views on Flikr. I hope you enjoyed seeing these and maybe even learning something about WMATA. Stay tuned! Summer semester just started and the next style I'm absorbing is "Night and Lowlight Photography". Wish me luck! And you can see ALL the work I do for school down on the link below on our Flickr page!
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