PHOTOGRAPHER'S JOURNAL: Contrary to my usual practice, I'm posting this more as a curiosity than because I found it a satisfying photographic composition. I've only done that twice before, and at least once I regretted it. For me this image has a special force that I want to remember.
The previous post was of Hiddenhurst Farm. In its day, the size, grandeur and historical significance of Hiddenhurst was matched by only one farm in the area, Hanover Hill. For many years they remained as empty relics of their eras and worthy subjects for photographic exploration, Hiddenhurst, silos catching the setting sun like a gleaming, princely castle on its hilltop, and Hanover Hill, the brooding neighbor, a rusted blot on the dark hillside.
This is Hanover Hill from Hiddenhurst Hill through my longest lens, the equivalent of 600mm on a full frame camera, an attempt to get closer. Since I began photographing this area I have scouted every perch and pathway that might yield a shot. Like everyone else, I was chased by the lone tenant who leased a small house on Hanover Hill property, chased even if I was on the public highway or on another persons property. He was notorious for the way he kept watch and aggressively went after people on his ATV.
Well, in truth, once I talked him in to letting me explore a bit. I may be the only photographer who ever succeeded. I thought I had it set that I could come back later; I only did a very brief inspection. Weeds covered everything, and I knew shooting would be a major project. However, nowhere have I seen such high, vast haylofts, and cow stalls that went on forever. What pictures they would make! When I returned he had forgotten his offer but from then on remembered my face, and every visit increased his rage though I photographed from the public roadway. It made for an unpleasant shoot, so I soon gave up trying; and then the barns burned to the ground, and the man was gone.
After that I could photograph pretty much as I wished so long as the hunters weren't around, and I photographed there often at the end of 2011 and in 2012, but the amazing barns were gone. The House on Hanover Hill, taken after the barns burned, was chosen as the poster shot for the Sharon Photography Show this year, and after the barns burned I took many photographs inside the house, but as expected, that too has been bulldozed and now all that is left of Hanover Hill is a field of rubble in the middle of cornfields, and this image in my mind of Hanover Hill from Hiddenhurst. For me, it's kind of haunting.
