Abstraction of an Abstraction

Cropped photo of an abstract sculpture in the plaza of the Wells Fargo Center. The snow contrives its own commentary on the texture of the piece.

Emptyness.

There are stretches of the skyway that define the word "empty." Quite a few of these, actually.

Hugely empty skyway with unusual signs of life.

I was framing up a shot of the enormously long, empty skyway from the 3rd Ave Garage to the 5th Ave Garage, and this couple walked up past me, obscuring the essential emptyness of the moment with their transient elan.

Composition with flourescent jacket

Tire tracks and worker, Fifth Street and Fifth Ave.

Light Rail takes a holiday

The LRT power was down today. I noticed walking north from the Jerry Haaf garage that there was activity around this stopped train. Looking closer, I was intrigued by the big truck in front of the train. Was it a tender transferring vital material to the engine, or was it going to tow? The pattern of the trucks tires scribbled another Franz Kline-like abstraction in the snow. You won't find these works of art anywhere but in the great skyway gallery.

A person in the skyway

When I exchanged a few words with this gentleman and asked if I could take his picture for the blog, he responded with a positive attitude. It caught me by surprise, a bit, and reminded me that there was something important in the act of recognizing someone. I didn't take his picture. He gave it to me, and with substance.

A windchill of seven below zero.

One of the city's oldest skyways, north of the NorthStar building, with its dingy carpet and narrow passage, still exudes warmth and camaraderie on a razor-cold day.

Waiting in line for lunch

Chipotle at the US Bank center has been drawing crowds since it's recent opening.

Asian Max at One Financial Plaza usually keeps them standing 10- 20 deep during the peak lunch rush.
I am intrigued by people spending time in lines, in the skyways, during lunch. Especially with so many good to great eateries going empty.

A river of light

From the 18th floor, looking south, with the low winter sun shining off the road surface: The autos are like bits of debris floating on a river of light.

Winter City Skyway

The bridges between buildings shelter everyone equally. That is the point. You don't have to buy a skypass, and there aren't dryer, warmer lanes for wealthier users. They fulfill a vision of egalitarian access and utility in cities. In Minnesota they work, and are not neglected, nor do they become eddy pools in the urban stream that collect debris.
What would you do if there were no skyways? Would it matter to you?

50% off everything in the world

Here is a corner of McLuhan's Global Village.

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

The glory of the world fades, and the light and dark alternate with a persistant rhythm.

Winter reflections, sunset

From the roof of the Government Center Parking Ramp at 5th Street and 5th Avenue, the winter sun's acetylene flame burns into the old brick Sexton building at 4:40 pm, in January. Kids are barely home from school. Dinner isn't even started. Commuters hitting the freeway replay the slights and mischances of a day at the office. Those driving west shield their eyes from the incandesence of a sustained nuclear fusion 93 million miles away in space...hydrogen atoms becoming helium in an alchemy that made men believe in gods, and made gods out of stars at the dawn of time.

Work defines banality for most of us. A few of us escape the routine often enough to feel some satisfaction or achievement. Increasingly I hear that people in their fourties and late thirties have lost their vision of work as fulfillment completely. I stand on the top of the parking ramp, my nerves resonant with the spectral majesty of refracted sunlight reflected in a banal building. The distance between the ordinary and the breath of gods contains all human imagination, and it seems to be collapsing into itself today.

In Tuscon, Arizona, the president prepares to eulogize a 9 year old girl born on Sept. 11 2001, and died on the knife edge of a rage that the word "madness" cannot contain. It is as though the old gods are bursting through the tv screens, the reflections of humanity framed in our rec rooms.

In the kitchen, a woman stands in front of the stove and stares through the window, out over the pond, west past Minnetonka, and sees an illusion of gold for a moment, which then fades. She bursts into tears, and turns the flame on under her frying pan full of hamburger helper. The voices of the gods are silent, now. Their breath hangs in the frozen air. The light dies, and the earnest cadences of a president strokes the frayed grief of a nation, a voice of resolve but a voice of tin and candle wax, a voice spilling the past from the demented flatness of her high definition tv.

Who have we become, and when we turn inward, is there anyone left there to answer the cries of the parents, or the prayers of the wives, or the questions of the children? How do we explain the distance between the banality of our days and the inconceivable power of the sun's inhuman heart? How do we help our children find their own arc across a sky we abandon, we fall from, we darken with our fear?

The days are actually growing longer in January, but the emotional depth of winter is just beginning to swallow us up. We grasp the flare of sunset briefly, then drive.

Winter color, sunset

The sun is down at 5 pm on January 12. This is the view from the roof of the parking ramp at 4:40.

Name that retro logo

What was the name of the oil company that had this logo? Retro tow truck seen on Mpls. winter street.

Abstraction with tire marks

Vehicle expressionism in recent snow.

A winter medly of street repair photos

Some people work in the midst of the world and the weather. This medly of street work photos is dedicated to those who brave the wind chill and flurries, sleet or wild pedestrians to keep our city doable.

The snow way

On the street, beneath the skyway, in Minneapolis. 1.11.11

Composition with snow and tracks

This "concrete abstraction" was created by one of the many snow brooms at work after a minor snowfall last night. The little vehicles look like riding mowers, and they push a big rotating bristle roller in front, whisking snow away from the pedestrian walks. You can see why I am standing in the warm carpeted skyway, looking out.

Island in the stream

A friendly guard discussed the new skyway consicousness of security. Things have changed a lot, even in the year since I began taking pictures. I do notice that the single lens reflex attracts attention, while the pocket digital seems more "touristy" and doesn't catch anyone's eye. There are still stories waiting to be told here.

Jon is a good sport. I will report more fully on what he and the city police encounter in the course of their duties when I begin doing actual interviews later this month. Stay tuned.