I wasn't that interested in it until I went to SCAD. I just thought it was weird - now I love it. I think it helps to have a lot of background knowledge on art and photography and it's history to truly appreciate but here's a hint. Look at these as Landscapes instead of pictures of yucky industry. They are all taken at night - sometimes the exposure time is an hour. Can you imagine it taking one hour to take one picture? Dan is attracted to these areas at night because he likes how the glow of artificial and ambient light transform the ordinary spaces into extraordinary, almost sublime, landscapes. That's the best way I can explain it. Do you see it?
Here is a map .... and that is the U.P. It's in between Lake Michigan and Lake Superior.
Speaking of Lake Superior, here is a picture of us in front of it. It's beautiful and looks like the ocean! All of our pics together consist of one of us holding out the camera. Today it's Dan...
...and here I'm sticking my feet in - FREEZING!!! And there were some crazy kids swimming right beside us!
We flew into Minneapolis and went to the Mall of America. It is the largest mall in the country, I think. It has an amusement park in the middle of it and we went on a roller coaster!! This pic is from my phone. They have some pretty scary rides in there...
From Minneapolis we drove up to the U.P. and seemed to go all over the place. We visited with Dan's sweet, sweet grandma who gave us these two amazing pictures. Dan and I collect old photos so we are especially thrilled to have these.
They are Dan's great grandparents' wedding photos taken around 1913. In real life they are huge prints (well 11×14 was for back then). Notice how the men have unlit cigarettes in their hands. The ladies also have both a corsage and a bouquet. And what's up with that accordion? So back then you got married and then went to the photographer's studio to have your picture made.
Dan's great grandmother was really short, like 4 1/2 ft tall. This picture is probably right after she came to America from Croatia. Her aunt (the one standing next to her I'm guessing her maid of honor) already lived here and sent her money to come over on a boat that landed on Ellis Island.
And then she let me raid some more pictures - one more I'm so thrilled to have. Dan's grandma (the bride above's daughter) with Dan's grandpa, who is straight up Italian. I love this picture. I like the way they look so relaxed and in love....and I like that you can see snow on the ground and the sled.
That's it. Back to real life. Thanks so much to all of Dan's relatives for making the trip so much fun!!
Oh, PS I almost forgot. We had a layover in Charlotte and guess who we ran into - Lil Kim. That's right. I probably wouldn't even really recognize her but a girl in the ladies room gave me the heads up. She and her entourage of like 6 people and a body guard were sitting at the table right next to us at a restaurant in the airport. I felt sorry for her because she had to wear a hat and sunglasses at it was like 9 at night and everyone was staring at her the entire time. Apparently her flight was delayed.