Another Day Out

So, I was really hoping to use reading week more to my advantage by going out on excursions and shooting some photos instead of actually reading, but unfortunately, the weather threw a wrench into my plans. On Sunday afternoon, a storm started to blow through the area, and on Monday, the city of Windsor woke up to 30 centimeters of snow. As this is not normal for the area, and it was family day, I decided it would be best to postpone shooting for the day. Driving would be terrible, none of the lots would be plowed to park in, and really, I didn’t feel like walking around because no one shovels there side walks here until a day or two after a snow fall… if ever.

But on Tuesday, Natalie Sinn, an undergrad in her final year of completing a Honours Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Visual Arts, and myself decided to venture out to see what we could find. Our first stop was out by the Windsor airport at a place called B.O.S. Auto Parts, which is an automotive recycler. The lot looked to have a lot of really interesting old car parts, so I asked the owner if I could take some photographs. I found it quite humorous when he stated “Ohhhh… you don’t want to be out there today it’s to cold to be shooting photographs!” (It was -8 -16 with the wind…) “And the snow in the yard is up to here!” (As he pointed mid thigh, an obvious exaggeration) I just chuckled to myself, and said I was from Saskatchewan, but he didn’t understand the reference, and was adamant that I come back when the snow was gone. But, I’ll take what I can get, as they usually don’t allow people in to the car yard, so when the weather gets better, I’ll be back.

A few shops down the road we stopped at ABC Auto Parts. When we first walked in, I really

liked the place. It had all kinds of old and interesting memorabilia of the area hanging all over the walls. There was even an oversized amour of a knight in one corner of the office. In the garage part there were shelves and shelves of old motors and fans and auto parts lined up on one side of the wall. The first guy I asked about taking some photographs said I would need to wait for the owner who was next door eating lunch, so we had a quick look around the outside of the building. But, I found the inside to be much more photographically interesting. We went back in, and waited and waited, and then finally, Jim, the owner showed up wiping food from his face. My first impression was not good. I explained my process, and when I was finished, he asked if we were spies. Really… spies! I think this guy has some serious paranoia issues. I told him that no, I’m a student, and here’s my business card so you can see what my work is about. He looked at it briefly, and rudely said it was too nice for him to keep, and handed it back. He then proceeded to give me one of his cards, which he stated that because they weren’t as nice as mine, he could afford to hand them out. He wrote down his name, and said “there’s only one person to talk to about getting access to my lots.” To what I replied, “you?” And he said, “Yeah, come back when the weather is better…” Honestly, I am torn. This guy was such an ass, and I’m assuming that this also had something to do with the fact that we were two women, that I’m not sure that I will go back. It’s something to keep in mind though. He did seem to warm up to the idea a little bit at the end, and he mentioned something about a large lot of old cars in McGregor that is his. I’m not quite sure where that is, but if I need to, I’ll figure it out.

After we left ABC, we stopped for lunch at The Whistling Kettle, in the township of Tecumseh. Natalie worked here years ago, and like she said, the food was amazing! Mmmmm I just had ½ a gyro and sweet potatoes fries as leftovers for lunch! We then ended up in the small town of Elmstead. I still find it strange how towns in the area seem to be connected. I still thought we were in Windsor until I looked at a map. Here, we stopped at AP Plasman, a company that specializes in painted plastic for automobile exteriors. Although we weren’t allowed access, I did get the contact information for Richard (who Natalie couldn’t stop talking about how much she loved his Liverpool accent) and he said to get in contact through email, with the possibility of doing a tour. (And if Richard is giving it, Natalie wants to come along so she can listen to him talk) Which reminds me… send that email! While in the area we stopped at Integram Windsor Seating, a company that specializes in manufacturing and assembling the front and rear seating for minivans. Unfortunately no one was in the office, but I did get a contact number to call to see if I could get access. Another reminder… make that phone call!

From here we decided to tour around the rich area of Essex County, as this was where Natalie

wanted to get the portrait of here car taken. At this point her car was splattered with slush, and she was adamant about the dirtiest part of her car being displayed in front of the nicest possible house we could find. The nicest we found were on Elmgrove Drive, and one that we stopped at is perhaps Steve Yzerman’s summer cottage. It’s important to note, that all the houses face Lake St. Clair, so we were only seeing the back of the houses, which are not as nice as the fronts.

It was starting to get to be later on in the day, and Natalie wanted to take me to the Chathem-Kent Museum, which is located approximately 80KM from Windsor. She had never been there

before, but from all of the press it gets on it’s displays of the a

uto industry, figured it would be interesting. We were both sadly disappointed. There was 1 old car, and a few horse drawn carts. I think the most interesting thing I saw in the museum was part of the jaw of a Mastodon that had been found in the area. But regardless, we got there ½ hour before closing, so I quickly set up and took a few photographs. Although in no way do I see this fitting into my final body of work, I was partly experimenting to see how they would turn out, and this way I can also show that I have been playing around with lots of subject matter, which seems to make people happy.

As the sun was setting, Natalie took off to take a few of her own photographs in a park within Chathem… and then we drove off into the sunset back to Windsor. Although no solid panoramic resulted, I feel like I got a lot of really great leads that could result in so

me amazing photographs.

I also had another studio visit today with Julie Sando, and the concept of performance came up again. How this process of getting people to take me out has a performative aspect to it. In a way, I see these formal/informal p

ortraits of other people’s cars a way of inserting a personal aspect into my work.