From my home in San Antonio I can drive to most parts of Texas to shoot photographs and return the same day. Usually I head northwest onto the Edwards Plateau and beyond to the Texas Bend country. My inclination is to go as far west as I can and still return in one day. For me there is a sense of freedom when traveling in the less populated parts of West Texas and the borderlands. It is a vast area with few resources so you need to be able to manage on your own.
Logistically, getting to West Texas for a sunrise photograph without an overnight stay means starting out at two or three AM. A shooting plan is a necessity when traveling hours to make a few photographs. It is simply too far to drive without knowing what you expect to accomplish. My first task is always to work my plan. Then as time and distance permit, to scout and shoot documentary images for future trips.
I could spend a couple of days a week on the road and never get to photograph all the interesting places I’d like to see. Being a regional photographer in Texas means there is plenty of room to roam around.
The old general store post office in Cleo Texas was important to local farmers and ranchers as a community hub that bound people together. As with many country businesses it was a family affair. The store and home behind were inseparable.
As far as I can tell the store closed early autumn of 1974. At least that is when the calendar behind the glass front display cabinet stopped being turned forward. October 14th is scratched out. I imagine the owners must have felt time had come to an end in some way. Certainly their lives were changed forever. Even so, they continued living in the house and maintaining the property. Old habits a hard to break. Both the general store and residence survive more than forty years on.
I don’t know what happened to the people who lived in the house. There are no community residents left to ask about local history. It is clear they stayed on for some years. Long tended landscaping and a spacious screened porch survive in good order. Whatever happened they are gone now. The two rocking chairs remaining on the porch suggest comfortable habits and settled lives.
Closing Date – Cleo Texas
The Past and Future
The depopulation of rural America is well known. Small communities disappear as opportunities draw younger generations to cities. What is left are buildings that no longer serve the purpose for which they were built. These places are endlessly re-purposed to meet current needs but eventually they wear out and are abandoned.
A current fashion in photography is to document crumbling remains of buildings and infrastructure as a world in decline. I can’t see things in those terms. Instead when I visit old places I look for the signs of people who were builders and doers. Their stories are important to me.
Seeing the World
There are two constants in what I choose to photograph. First and foremost my interest is in the road less traveled. The places one cannot see when driving down the Interstate highway at eighty miles an hour. Second I’m interested in the people who live or once lived in small towns and rural surroundings. They are people who see the world in ways that are fundamentally different than average city dwellers. These two things are the reason I spend my time on the back roads of Texas with camera in hand.
My photographic interests are mostly drawn from the region where I live. That is not to say my images are always about the Southwest of the United States. I am a Westerner by birth and inclination but throughout my childhood and as an adult I rarely lived in one place for more than a few years before moving on. For me regional photography is about the place where I currently live. If you move around you learn to appreciate places for what they are or you have lots of unhappy time on your hands.
In many ways the Hill Country is the heart of Texas. It is only a few hundred feet higher than the surrounding areas in Central Texas but that small elevation change creates a unique climate zone. The temperatures are milder in the summer and cooler in the winter. Remnants of ancient maple and hardwood forests that once grew northward across the United States and into Canada still grow here.
The Hill Country is an especially important area for farming and ranching. It was settled in large part by German speaking immigrants who created excellent schools and cultural institutions. In fact German was commonly spoken and taught as a first language in parts of the Hill Country until after the Second World War. Today the language has disappeared but the cultural influence remains strong.
In autumn the mild temperatures and unique varieties of trees draw thousands of people to the area. In particular Lost Maples and Enchanted Rock State Parks are so heavily visited during the Fall that you have to make reservations just for a day trip. Fortunately there are many other scenic areas and byways crisscrossing the hills.
The photograph is of the Medina River just north of Bandera Texas, near the Southern edge of the Hill Country. I have been making photographs here more than ten years. The cycles of seasons, drought and abundant moisture are especially evident along the River. There have been times in recent years when the river was completely dry. Other times floods have ravaged the area, sometimes a few months apart. Today the river is at about average flow for the season. It moves gently along in the early morning sunshine.
