{"id":19125,"date":"2015-07-08T06:51:20","date_gmt":"2015-07-08T10:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=19125"},"modified":"2019-11-26T06:59:25","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T11:59:25","slug":"the-lone-boxcar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2015\/07\/08\/the-lone-boxcar\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lone Boxcar"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Boxcar <\/a> <\/div>
\"Boxcar <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"cable <\/a>
Note the shadowy self-portrait on the left. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Boxcar <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Here’s a series of my photo elective shots I took while wandering the “wilds” of Westville, New Jersey trying to find a subject or composition that would please my photography teacher and get me a passing grade. It seems that I favored industrial detritus, abandoned buildings, auto graveyards and human graveyards. I guess I was a gloomy Gus,<\/em> but I was also going with the things in and around my hometown that would lend itself to artsy-fartsy, contrasty, black and white photography.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Above is a series of shots of an unattended, possibly abandoned boxcar up on what I believe is the edge of town some time in the Fall of 1982. If I’m wrong about the location, feel free to comment below!<\/p>\n

I thought it was odd to be open as it were. Boxcars have an irresistible attraction to bored kids so it was begging for mischief, and I kept expecting to be chased off or at least challenged by a watchman or cop as I approached it. The area was deserted, and I snapped off these shots unmolested.<\/p>\n

The tracks were still in use at the time, and I assume they still are so I don’t know why this looks as if nobody cared with all of the cable spools and forklift palettes so sloppily scattered.<\/p>\n

The haphazard pile of cable spools really surprises me. A few years before this photo was taken, it was very fashionable to appropriate one of those spools and use it as a piece of hippie furniture. They were highly sought after as makeshift coffee or cocktail tables in swinging apartments or covered with shag carpeting and placed in a customized van to give a mobile crash pad all of the comforts of home. I guess the trend had dried up by the time I was making these exposures.<\/p>\n

\"customize<\/a>I wish I had taken more shots to establish the area, but it was a different time and an expensive media. Nowadays I’ll shoot digital photos without thinking. Back then, every frame of a 36-exposure roll of Pan-X seemed precious particularly on an art student’s meager budget, and I would always ask myself whether a shot was worth it.<\/p>\n

The Photo Elective<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Back in the 1980s, I went to art school, and I along with all of the other illustration majors<\/strong> were required to take a minor course in photography. We had to shoot the photos as well as process the negatives and make prints. I don\u2019t recall what the particulars of the class assignments were although I can tell from looking at the negatives which were the assignments and which ones were shot just to finish off a roll. The shots to finish a roll are a lot more interesting. While my fellow students mostly resided and shot their photographs in the vibrant metropolis of Philadelphia, I lived and did most of my shooting in and around the staid and solid small town of Westville, New Jersey<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s a series of my photo elective shots I took while wandering the “wilds” of Westville, New Jersey trying to find a subject or composition that would please my photography teacher and get me a passing grade. It seems that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3340],"tags":[33,148,355,3612,158,988,3610,3609,3611,5,122,118,3613,1379,1622,480,336,121],"class_list":["post-19125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-photo-elective","tag-1980s","tag-148","tag-35mm","tag-abandoned","tag-analog","tag-black-and-white","tag-boxcar","tag-debris","tag-deserted","tag-joe-williams","tag-new-jersey","tag-photography","tag-rust-belt","tag-sad","tag-train","tag-usa","tag-vintage","tag-westville"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-4Yt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19705,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2015\/09\/29\/all-that-remains\/","url_meta":{"origin":19125,"position":0},"title":"All that remains","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"September 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"As I was processing the scan of this film negative I sort of remembered what I was trying to do with these art school photos back in 1982. I had an idea where I was playing off graveyards for people such as this shot with shots in auto graveyards. Dead\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Photo Elective"","block_context":{"text":"The Photo Elective","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/the-photo-elective\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/circle-130.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":38553,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/08\/18\/the-old-homestead\/","url_meta":{"origin":19125,"position":1},"title":"The Old Homestead","author":"Joe","date":"August 18, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is a shot of my parents' house in Westville, NJ that I took sometime during the Fall of 1982. The Sears branded SLR camera I shot this with was borrowed from my Father and was loaded with either a roll of Pan-X or Tri-X black-and-white 35mm film. This was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blast from the Past"","block_context":{"text":"Blast from the Past","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/blast-from-the-past\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Old Homestead","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52276885578_0ed1100516_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52276885578_0ed1100516_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52276885578_0ed1100516_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":19527,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2015\/09\/02\/somewhere-along-crown-point-road\/","url_meta":{"origin":19125,"position":2},"title":"Somewhere Along Crown Point Road","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"September 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in 1982 I went wandering along Crown Point Road to see what I could see and hopefully take a few frames of 35mm Pan-X film worth the effort of developing them. I think I was trying to shoot dead things spending a lot of time in graveyards or junkyards\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Photo Elective"","block_context":{"text":"The Photo Elective","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/the-photo-elective\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Along Crown Point Road","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5701\/20988965296_acf3095037_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5701\/20988965296_acf3095037_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5701\/20988965296_acf3095037_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":17899,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2014\/12\/16\/the-photo-elective-king-richards-tavern\/","url_meta":{"origin":19125,"position":3},"title":"The Photo Elective – King Richard’s Tavern","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"December 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in the 1980s, I went to art school, and I along with all of the other illustration majors were required to take a course in photography. We had to shoot the photos as well as process the negatives and make the prints. I don't recall what the particulars of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blast from the Past"","block_context":{"text":"Blast from the Past","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/blast-from-the-past\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"King Richard's Tavern","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8666\/15801589579_7a90ec3c42_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8666\/15801589579_7a90ec3c42_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8666\/15801589579_7a90ec3c42_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":18362,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2015\/03\/18\/self-portrait-circa-1982\/","url_meta":{"origin":19125,"position":4},"title":"Self-Portrait Circa 1982","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"March 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in the 1980s, I went to art school, and I along with all of the other illustration majors were required to take a minor course in photography. We had to shoot the photos as well as process the negatives and make prints. I don\u2019t recall what the particulars of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Photo Elective"","block_context":{"text":"The Photo Elective","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/the-photo-elective\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Self-portrait 1982","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8740\/16639395579_ce4fb33119_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8740\/16639395579_ce4fb33119_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8740\/16639395579_ce4fb33119_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":20069,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2015\/12\/02\/up-on-the-circle\/","url_meta":{"origin":19125,"position":5},"title":"Up on the Circle","author":"Joe","date":"December 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The following frames are among my favorite shots from this Photo Elective series. They are photos of a defunct greasy spoon known as the Murphy House that sat before a swampy marsh up in the area where Westville ended. The place was up for sale when I shot these negatives\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Photo Elective"","block_context":{"text":"The Photo Elective","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/the-photo-elective\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Park N' Eat \u2022 1982","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3944\/15477415396_a21fefb5c6_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3944\/15477415396_a21fefb5c6_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3944\/15477415396_a21fefb5c6_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19125\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}