Kyle Anderson

Preface: The series of storms that has been rolling through the southwest since Monday night has been called the biggest storm of the last decade by some. Several feet of snow has accumulated. The Navajo and Apache counties declared a state of emergency Thursday. In Flagstaff, damage is being done to buildings as roofs buckle under the weight of snow. One of Arizona’s most treasured small retail chains, Bookman’s, was one of the businesses to take a fatal hit from the storm. APSN reported the roof collapse around 10:30 last night. This afternoon, I trekked with a friend to take pictures of the damage. As we shot, regular people cycled in and out of the parking lot in disbelief and sorrow at the loss of the used book store. Last year, when nearby Hasting’s entertainment suffered a similar fate, few expressed such feelings of dismay. Here is the damage:

Part of the Bookman's sign dangerously hangs, partially peeled off of the building.

Full front of the Bookman's store.

The neighboring Jo-Ann's store sustained a similar amount of damage.

A side view near the entrance of Bookman's.

"Uninhabitable" stickers were posted on neighboring small businesses, including Burrito's Fiesta, Trader's Outlet, and Hastings. Most of the stickers were taken down by a city worker moments after this picture was taken.

Workers shovel snow off of the roof of Pier 1 Imports to prevent further collapse.

Preface: About a month ago, I borrowed a Holga 120N from my roommate on a whim. The assignment for my photo class was to emulate a famous photographer, and the guy I chose had a great set of Holga pictures on his website. I rushed to the local photo store and bought two rolls of black and white 120 film. I asked the clerk, “So, is this film in a canister like 35mm?” The old man behind me chuckled at my inexperience. They patiently explained how 120 worked, and I was instantly fascinated.

Last weekend after Thanksgiving, I decided to pick at the antique cameras my family had acquired over the years and had been sitting on a bookshelf collecting dust. For the longest time, I just assumed that the film for those cameras didn’t exist. But when I inspected them, lo and behold, most of them took 120. The ones that didn’t could be easily modified to fit 120 or 35mm. So I went on a shoot near the airport in Las Vegas. Admittedly, these frames are far from perfect, and I seriously screwed up the Horseman pictures.

Holga:

Rusty Rollbox:

Horseman:

And here is a (crappy) picture of the antique cameras I’m starting to shoot with:

Horseman (left), Rollbox (center), and Starflex Brownie (right), which failed on this shoot for a number of reasons.