[Views of Cincinnati] Midwestern Fog
It seemed like a scene that would be more commonplace on the lakefront of Chicago or near the bay in San Francisco. In fact, that's what the gentleman who passed me on the street remarked: "I used to live in San Francisco, man and I haven't seen anything like this here!"
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I was ready to start on Two Hundred and Twenty Four Views of Cincinnati, but I wasn't ready that Sunday. I had been planning the project in my head for awhile, announced it that past Thursday. On Sunday, I slept in late. All I wanted to do that day was relax and watch t.v. I didn't even remember that I had homework to do until way later that evening. I wasn't in a very outgoing mood. Through the apartment blinds, the weather looked cloudy, gray and cold. I did need to go to the gas station and run a few errands. I stepped outside, half awake in the afternoon and couldn't even see the parking lot that's twenty feet in front of my building. The fog was that thick in the valley where my complex sits. I ran back inside, grabbed the camera and knew I had an opportunity.
I ran my quick errands. It was cold. I bought a pair of gloves at the Marathon station up the street and cruised for ten minutes until I hit downtown while listening to The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. I parked on 3rd Street. The new pair of gloves was actually two left handed gloves and essentially useless. My fingers were freezing, but I didn't care - the city looked surreal. Unlike the aforementioned waterfront cities, I've rarely seen fog in Cincinnati and I had never seen it this thick.
Cincinnati's skyline is gorgeous, but its skyscrapers are modest in comparison to cities such as Chicago and New York. Even so, the tops of the Carew, Scripps and Great American building were obscured in white. After doing a few photographic laps around 2nd and 3rd streets, I hopped the Roebling bridge over to Covington.
Originally, I had wanted to start the project off with a more "stereotypical" shot of the skyline. Something like a night shot, clear sky, right across from downtown with all the buildings on the riverfront lit up and reflecting in the water below. A shot myself and countless others had taken before. But that Sunday was too perfect. While I want the project to include my own take on those standard views, I also wanted to present them uniquely and abstractly. What better way to start things off?
Some might be thinking that the frame doesn't actually include a photograph of the skyline. They're right. It's blocked by the fog. If the weather had been "normal," you would see the usual view. That's what makes this unique I guess.
On a typical midwestern winter day, cloudy and gray, the fog rolled over the Cincinnati Skyline. I stood on the opposing Covington waterfront and made the first frame of the project - happy with how things have started.
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