The Other Side

Not to beat a dead horse here, but I feel it necessary to use another picture that focuses on abandoned places and things.

Hey, don't close the browser window, I promise this is going to be different than Monday's post.

You see, on my last post, "The Creepy Factor," I delved into photographs that instill and uneasiness or creepiness in the observer. I used the abandoned home in my photograph to show such a feeling. The doll, the baby's rocking-seat, and the state of decay the house was in all added to a fantastically disturbing image, but the idea that all abandoned things are inherently eerie is a bit broad.

I don't think anyone's going to argue that a building that's been abandoned for more than five or ten years is creepy and unnerving. Maybe it's because around ninety-percent of horror movies revolve around creepy, old houses, or maybe it's from a more primitive reason that such places give us the chills. I'm not really sure, myself, but I do know that items that are abandoned in the middle of nowhere tend to be far less scary.

Case and point, this old Ford truck;

As you may remember, I went into detail in "The Creepy Factor" about how the scariest things about a macabre image is that you don't know shit about what the story is behind it.

I don't know about you, but I definitely don't get a creepy feeling looking at this picture, or even when I was right next to this beauty. And I have no idea what its story is. Hell, I don't even know what the model of this truck is. If you're anything like I am, you're not filled with a sense of eeriness and dread, but of curiosity. Where has this vehicle been? Who owned it? Were there a lot of good memories in it?

For that matter, what the hell did this thing look like before rust and time ripped it apart? I'm guessing it had that classic mint-green paint job (classic, but in my opinion, it was an ugly-ass color), but was there a time when this thing was being taken care of like so many vintage-car owners love to do to their 1970s hotrods?

I know today's topic isn't as in-depth as Monday's was, but I thought it was important to clear up that my love of abandoned things comes in two flavors: creepy and curiosity. We'll get into something a bit sunnier on Friday.

I was going to drown this picture in cool effects on Photoshop, as is my usual style, but a combination of a self-imposed deadline and admiration for the truck means you get a picture that's completely untouched. I promise, it's a rare occasion.