Staring Down The Sunset On SE Morrison, July 2017

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This is a photo that reminds me of some semi-apocalyptic role-playing game art I've seen online lately involving sightlines down city streets with a low sun-angle.

In this case, it's just looking westbound on SE Morrison St just east of SE 7th Avenue on a July evening in 2017. 

The tall building on the left, close-by, is the Weatherly Building, southeast corner of SE Grand and Morrison, a 12-story edifice constructed by the man who once sold more than 90 per cent of the ice cream in Oregon ... well, about 100 years ago, anyway ... and it was hoped that the Weatherly would be the nucleus of a business district to rival the one on the west.

Well, here it is, 2021 and there are enough bulky buildings in the MLK/Grand corridor that the Weatherly is now just a little taller than the rest and the new 5 MLK building at MLK and Burnside exceeds that by 5 floors. So, as it turned out Weatherly and his cohort were right about the inner east side.

They just had to wait 100 years.

[pdx] Morrison Street Bokeh, Portland, Sunday

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I wasn't going to post this at first, but it's kind of grown on me.

I shared this on Facebook and got an unexpectedly positive response. I wanted a shot down this street (SE Morrison, coming west from SE 12th Ave)  in this light, the light at sunset as the smoky inflection from the east side infernos were finally getting out of town. The camera sometimes finds something in the foreground work focussing on and the everything else stays out of focus. Since I was in a a moving car, the moment passed very quickly, and I had this thing-of-the-moment.

Bokeh is, apparently, the artistic aspect of blur. This shot is loaded with it, the contrast between the reflections in the windshield in front and the back ground which is nothing but blur, and suffused with the amber light, all creates a feeling of subjection and atmosphere which is hard to quantify. You can see the Weatherly Building on the left there, but you'll find there anything you wish.

So, for the permanent record, here it is. Unexpected art. Maybe all that is why, even though I wasn't at first impressed with it, I kept it anyway.

It got a hold on me.