The Weekly Photograph #18
Awaiting Nightfall in a Bible Town
Entry #18 from The Work
Night Watch, Ezel, Kentucky
30x40”
pigment print from 8x10” negative
“It was too late! I wouldn’t be able to set up the camera in time! I am tired! They wouldn’t let me take their photo! It’s not worthwhile, anyway.”
All of these thoughts raced through my mind the second I passed the setting sun and the three men standing outside the garage. I can’t remember the day of the week or what I had done the day before, or after. All I know is I’d been to Western Kentucky’s flatlands and I’d made a good number of images up until that evening in biblically named Ezel, Kentucky, a little hamlet with a grand church up on the hill.
Church, Ezel, Kentucky (aside)
The avalanche of work before and ahead of me in Kentucky overcame any excuses I tried to give myself to bypass this scene of the three men. It helps to create mantras to overcome negative self-talk, so I created one which was taped to my steering wheel throughout my entire month photographing in Kentucky (if you’re interested in reading it, send me an email). Opportunities like this don’t come up every day. It was a quintessentially American scene with the potential to relate to larger topic of our time. That was, if I could make it.
As I reminded myself my purpose here, I turned the car around below the church up above, pulled over, got out my 8x10” view camera and walked over to the garage. The three men were barely interested in me, nor the camera. One of them grabbed a rifle styled like an M16 and began pointing it at the sky. “BB gun” he said. This city boy was relieved. I set up my camera, adjusted the men and their equipment (I had them back the Ranger up a bit for balance) and took the picture. I considered exposing another sheet of 8x10 film for security, but I knew I had it one.
I sent the gracious men a print later.
Night Watch (detail)
Until next time,
John Sanderson
New York City
1/23/2025
This image was created thanks to the Kentucky Documentary Photography Project which commissioned me to travel and photograph the Commonwealth of Kentucky for the entire month of April. There is a forthcoming book and exhibition.
You can learn more about the Kentucky Documentary Photography Project here.
Read about another image from Kentucky below.
Journal introduction from The Work
The American landscape in my time. Thousands upon thousands of miles traversed in search of pictures.
They become pictures when I see something.
Something which cannot be explained in words, only related to on some level of empathy.
Feeling with the light, subject or an arrangement of the two.
Driving, walking, searching deeper and longer for that which eludes me.
What I search for is unattainable.
But what keeps me coming back is the Quest, for those moments where a picture lines up with my imagination.
It is a complete circle.
"To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield." -Tennyson
In other news…
See/listen to new interview with Urbanautica’s Urbanaut Podcast