No Tresspassing

Saturday March 4th 2023

Composition #8

Just about every day, I drive by this decrepit, falling-down roadside produce stand, and I think about taking photographs of the stand someday, documenting the passage of time and neglect. I am fascinated by the way things are cast aside after they are deemed unusable, broken, and forgotten. And they lay, sometimes for centuries, decomposing, deteriorating, only to become part of the landscape.  

Composition #9

I was returning to my car after about 15 or 20 minutes of exploring the site and making images when a dirty black pickup truck rolled close to where I was standing. I was just about to get back into my car, and he said, "Hey, This is private property and there is no trespassing." I walk to his truck thinking I'll explain what I was doing and no big deal. Or so I thought. The youngish man rolled down his window and asked what I was doing on his property, and I mentioned I was taking photographs, and that I was just leaving. "Oh No," he spit out of his mouth and went on about me casing his property, coming back to steal his stuff, and said the police would sort it out.

Composition #3

This morning, I had promised myself that on the way home from a print event at AP3 (Anchor Press Paper & Print) with a group of high school students visiting from MOWA -Museum of Wisconsin Art, I decided to make good on the promise and stop by the produce stand.

Composition #4

As I returned to my car to put the camera away, he spun his truck around so that I couldn't make an escape. Don't engage, I thought. I wandered around the parking lot looking over the building and ate a really crisp, sweet juicy apple, slightly sweet with a hint of tartness. I thought about throwing the apple core into the brush but thought better of the impulse. 

Composition #5

About fifteen minutes later a police SUV slowly approached us and an African American Officer got out of his car and asked me what I was doing there. So I told him about being an artist and taking photographs for projects. I assured him and the property owner that the images were not created for any nefarious purpose. I asked the officer if they wanted to see the images, he wasn't interested, but the truck driver  wanted me to delete everything, so I showed him one image and said "This one is of rust, do you want me to delete that?" He soon lost interest and started talking about his A2 rights, which I didn't know. I asked the police officer: a reference to 2nd Amendment gun rights he said. The truck driver then mentioned coyote traps, coming out of his house armed, then hissed some terms about pointing a weapon at me. Then, he threw in a reference about Texas. At that point, I'm thinking this guy is angry and afraid. I'm gonna stand by the officer. The officer breaks into the guy's lopsided diatribe and asks if he is satisfied, which he is. The police officer and I shake hands and I get back in my vehicle and head home.