This picture is the most ominous yet, and it shows that even a door can change it's personality if given the right props, surroundings and special effects. I also want to note the lack of snow and the change in the background in the pictures now. At one point the pics were surrounded by snow and cold, now the summer is taking over!

I like this picture because of the shadow. I'd like it even more if that runner wasn't there, but alas, the park is a public place and the door is a part of that place. I found the door on this visit about 20 feet away from where I left it. Tossed down a hill and on its back. It was a beautiful afternoon and it was time to rectify once again. On my way to the park on this day, I was trying to picture where I would take the door and just couldn't think of anything, so when I found the old guy, I picked him up and began to walk. That was when I ran into the sun. I had not used any shadows yet, so why not give it a try? Here is the result.

After removing the door from the barracks I moved the door on to a hill with a great view. Things were depressing in the barracks and life was tough down there. Sun was limited and there were reminders everywhere of the purpose of the barracks. They were for fighting. Above where I had placed the door there were cement craters that must have been for canons, and there where some great places to fire guns if the fort was ever attacked. Up on the hill life changed quickly for the door. Within minutes of being stood up, tourists were getting there pictures taken with him. He was now a bit of and in park celebrity, this immigrant from the high seas. I hope with this new celebrity status the door doesn't change, I like him just the way he is now, reserved and faithful.

After a month long hiatus from meeteing with the door, I returned to the barracks where I had left the door. It had snowed and rained diring that period as March provided it's barrage of assorted weather. While I lay snug at home and at risk on the job, the door stood silent bearing the brunt of what nature had to offer. This is where the door ended up, from where I had left it as seen in my previous post. I wonder who moved it? They must have been having fun that day!

After another tough weekend of work it is nice to sit down and filter through some of my recent pictures of the worldly wonder known as the white door. I've been thinking about the photography of inanimate objects and that if you take enough pictures of them, in enough different places and different positions, they can take on a life of there own. This new life is only created in ones mind, and the life within this project differs from what you see. My relationship is much different with the door, more intimate. This picture has the door posing with an old military barracks over a sealed door. I've always wondered what it was like insde these sealed doors in point pleasant park...

This newest picture was taken of the door in what I would consider the most dense remaining forest area of the park. In almost every other spot in the park you can see uprooted trees or barren spots. In this oasis of trees, you feel as though you could be somewhere remote. This picture has the path framed in the door window. I had to go to the park twice to get this picture because my camera has gotten very moody and only likes to work once or twice a week now. I suppose he is getting old.

Today Baerbel and I went to the park for a picnic. It was cold, and people thought we were crazy, but that feeling when you get that first warm day after in the middle of February and Bingo, shorts and a picnic... and then freeze your ass off. The wind off the water was freezing, the potato salad cold and the chicken parmesan luke warm. After I got some food in my belly, I left the scene of the picnic and went looking on the beach for the door. It wasn't there. I looked around and saw that somebody had moved it about 20 feet. It was now next to a tree. I went over to the door, picked it up, put my head where the window pane had once been and began walking. I walked about 100 yards towards the center of the park on a path and then veered off into the rough area between the Sailors Memorial Way and Heather Road, just above the Sailors Memorial.

This picture allows you to see the unpainted side of the door which was not shown in the original picture.

Here is the first picture taken of the door.  This walk included our two good friends, who were visiting from Albania, Kevin and Bela.  It was was Kevin who took this picture.  I think this is the perfect place for the door blogumentary to start because this is where we found the door and this is the first placed it was "revived" even if that revival only was for an hour or two.  

On this particularly cold December day, the four of us ventured in to the park to see if the door was still there.  I was slightly worried about the tide having taken it away but when we approached, we could see the outline in the snow and we pulled it out.  We got the door standing and this shot has Halifax Harbor and McNabs Island in the background, and gives you your first visual contact with the White Door.  Chipped paint and rounded edges, missing door handle and empty glass pane, chipped and splintered wood throughout.   I wonder how long this door was in the water, I isn't waterlogged and I don't think it could have come from too far.   You can see how we stood the door up with the rocks at the bottom of the picture.

After the photo shoot we went and got some more pictures of a picnic table with rocks on the top and then discussed my future as a famous Canadian artist in Albania, I mean, how would they know the difference with work like this!

The First Encounter

It was a cold yet beautiful day in Halifax, Nova Scotia in early December 2008.  My Girlfriend and I decided that we needed to get out of the house so we headed down to our favorite place to take a walk, which is Point Pleasant Park.  We parked in the lower parking lot near the ship yard and walked along the trail next to the water called "Sailors Memorial Way."   As we perused the limited beach area as I normally do, looking for old washed up ship parts, we came across a door...  The door was chipped white on the front side and wood color on the back side.   It had a hollow square where the window pane had once been and an empty hole where the knob had once been.  I immediately took a liking to this door and decided that I was going to revive him by standing him up, if only for an hour or so.  I dug a small ditch, put the door in the ditch and found some fairly large rocks and leaned them on both sides of the door so it was stable.  My girlfriend, Baerbel, and walked around and admired what had once looked like an abandoned piece of wood,to a vibrant door that was standing again and seemed to be giving of life, giving off imaginations.  It allowed one to think it was still able to be walked through.  It was out of place.  As we walked away from our door, we could still see it 100 meters away, then through trees at 150 meters and it looked even more beautiful.  I don't know how long the door was standing that day, or if anyone else was able to see it and enjoy the fantastic thoughts to go along with the door.  I hope so.  I also plan to go back and put the door in different parts of the park, 10 places to be exact, and I will make 10 posts. 

Au revoir.