Photo Essay

I took a course called, "Photographic Essay" this quarter where we were all required to create a 25 image photo essay on any given topic. This is the biggest body of work I've done and I'm pretty dang proud of it. Here is a little about it;

The Drive-in: Not Just for Nostalgia and Novelty:

Despite the relentless rise of cinema multiplexes, cable television and a slew of other modern amusements, drive-ins refuse to die. In the series, “The Drive-In: Not Just for Nostalgia and Novelty”, it’s apparent that the drive-in is still a very current pastime filled with; concessions stands loaded with goodies, screen towers, ticket booths, scratchy speakers, speaker poles and anticipation for night fall.

Drive-Ins were at their peak in the baby boomer years after World War II there were more than 4,000 drive-ins across the US, providing a wholesome way for a car-obsessed society to fill its expanding leisure time. With the invention of the VCR, the rising cost of land and a growing reputation as teenage “passion pits”, the drive-in’s popularity went into a dramatic decline in the 1970’s and 80’s. Today there are fewer than 500 in operation.

According to the “Big Picture” website there are 7 major factors for the decline in drive-ins: 1) Social factors eroding theater environment (talking, cell phones, babies crying, etc.); 2) Sacrificing long term relationships with theater-goers for the increase in short term profitability (commercials, no ushers, etc.); 3) Higher quality experience elsewhere (Home theater); 4) Declining quality of mainstream movies; 5) Easily available Long Tail content alternatives (Netflix, Amazon); 6) Price; 7) Demographics: Aging baby-boomer simply go out to movies less.

While photographing the drive-ins it became very apparent that people are holding on to the summertime tradition and don’t want their children to miss out. Where else do you get to bring the whole family for a night out of movies, dinner, catching-up, visiting with neighbors, wear your pajamas, eat candy until midnight, and make a bed on top of dad’s car? The subjects in the photographs told stories of how they used to go to the drive-ins with their families when they were a kid. People are sad to see that not many of them are around anymore, only two in the twin cities area and one of them due for closure. It’s intriguing to me that the drive-in experience is so uniquely American, as some say culture converging with cars.

The drive-in seems to be frozen in time; there are still the large neon vintage signs, original advertising, and the same machines and projectors they used fifty years ago. Light and color comes from everywhere, the sky, the concessions building, the video games, the original black and white film booth, the projector, the screen, and the people.