Talking Pictures
Out Of Tune By Staff   •   May, 2009 On a visit to see my daughter’s family in southern Alabama, I took along my photo gear, as usual. My son-in-law knows I have a particular affinity for places and things that people just walk away from. He knows the scrap dealer who now owns the old Uniontown High School that was abandoned in the late 1990s when the new consolidated county high school was opened.

When I’m in places like this, I try to create an image that evokes what it might have been like to be there when all was well and life was vibrant. In this scene in the old auditorium, a teacher or gifted student could have been accompanying a soloist or the choir while the front seats were filled with students displaying various levels of interest. After the bell rung, they would have moved on to their next class. So, when they shuttered the building, why did they leave the piano?

A humorous moment did occur the day I was there. As I was setting up my tripod for this shot, I heard this “whoosh, whoosh, whoosh,” and looked up just in time to duck as an owl flew right over my head and through a window on the opposite side. Apparently, I had disturbed his favorite spot through that door behind the piano. So, I guess the building is still being appreciated.
—Jerry P. Park
Nashville, TN

© 2008, Jerry P. Park, All Rights Reserved

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