Opp, Alabama by Scott Eiden

Opp, Alabama by Scott Eiden. A limited edition c-print available at 20x200.

From the 20x200 blog:

Opp, Alabama is an especially special analog edition from Brooklyn-based, Northwest-bred gentleman photographer Scott Eiden, who makes his pictures the old-fashioned way: with a Deardorff Field Camera and a whole mess of chemicals.

As I said during my presentation on Monday night at the The Minnesota Center for Photography, technology is a key component in making 20x200 go, go, go. We'd be hard pressed to develop such a far-flung and enthusiastic collector crowd without the website or the newsletter, the 20x200 dream team would be lost without IM and, to date, all of our prints have been produced digitally.

So, yes, I am a lover of the digital technology, but that doesn't mean that I don't mourn the diminishing presence of our analog past, photographic and otherwise. That's why today's edition is such a treat.

Opp, Alabama is editioned in 3 sizes, all of which are traditional Chromogenic prints on Kodak Supra N paper, created from an 8"x10" negative. The edition of 200 are 8.5"x11" contact prints with black borders. (The medium and large sizes, 20"x24" and 30"x40" respectively, have white borders.)

The traditional process of the actual prints is a fitting echo to the bricks-and-mortar solidity of the building depicted. Dean's Pharmacy is a sturdy, yet beleaguered, artifact of our small-town heritage, buffeted by the relentless encroachment of service-road, strip mall America.

Read the rest of the post on the 20x200 blog.

Comments

[Sean Sellers]

Hello Scott, Dean's Pharmacy is my family's building. Thank you for at least calling the building sturdy. Sadly my father finally had to sell the drugstore; however, the strip mall chain could not retrofit and convert into a Rite Aide. Tis the waw of the world today. My brother, my sister nor I have no means to continue to find a way to restore the building. We are in the middle of negotiations to donate the building to the Opp Arts Council who is going to try and find a way to reopen the store with offices as it was back in the day. I will wish them luck.

By the way, I live in New York City and have since 1991. I am beginning to write a series of articles for the local paper to coinside with transaction/transition. I am going to be working on nastalgic oriented stories about the marble soda fountain, the building use to be the first theatre for the community, and the changes we made in the building during our 40 years. I am not sure now that I look at it directly what I think about my father tearing down two buildings to make way for the parking lot and the drive-thru window in the 1970's...

Just thought I would drop you a line.

Sean Sellers