On to an abandoned elementary school. Most of it was too dark to photograph in except for a few rooms. This was in the stage area, where I did most of my shooting. This photo also introduces another camera to my collection, an Agfa Clack.

Camera: Agfa Clack using Rollei Retro 100 B&W film, developed in Rodinal 1:50, scanned darkroom print

Song of the day: "Marry Song" by Band of Horses

Poem of the day:
"AN old man’s thought of School;
An old man, gathering youthful memories and blooms, that youth itself cannot.

Now only do I know you!
O fair auroral skies! O morning dew upon the grass!

And these I see—these sparkling eyes,
These stores of mystic meaning—these young lives,
Building, equipping, like a fleet of ships—immortal ships!
Soon to sail out over the measureless seas,
On the Soul’s voyage.

Only a lot of boys and girls?
Only the tiresome spelling, writing, ciphering classes?
Only a Public School?

Ah more—infinitely more;
(As George Fox rais’d his warning cry, “Is it this pile of brick and
mortar—these dead floors, windows, rails—you call the church?
Why this is not the church at all—the Church is living, ever living Souls.”)

And you, America,
Cast you the real reckoning for your present?
The lights and shadows of your future—good or evil?
To girlhood, boyhood look—the Teacher and the School."
- Walt Whitman, "An Old Man’s Thought of School"

Posted on 17 March, 2008 (28)