JUMP OFF THE TOUR BUS

By MICHAEL PERKINS

THE COUNTRY’S VARIOUS CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE SPEND MILLIONS burnishing their respective cities’ reps for the sake of prospective tourists, designating themselves as dream destinations, peerless attractions, or The Birthplace Of The Turnip, whatever. They spiff up their resumes in mountains of brochures, travel guides, scheduled tours, festivals, anything to attract visitors and give them a seamless, sunshiny travel experience. All well and good. However, in photographing these places, it might be a good idea to seek the places that every other shooter hasn’t already, well, shot to death.

Sure, go see the official version of Our Town, USA. Take in the ruins, the pioneer memorial, the freedom plaza, the giant ball of twine, etc, etc. But also give yourself some alone time off the beaten path. I’m not suggesting that your spend your entire stay in the rough side of town, but maybe the earlier versions of it, “the town we lived in before we were really a town”. The parts not designated for significant upgrades or “urban renewal”. And, yes, occasionally, “the other side of the tracks”. The places where a quiet, improvised pride of place and home remain a bit frozen in place, almost immune from the passage of time. The above view, from an older residential sector of Flagstaff, Arizona, well beyond the tonier and busier shopping district, is an example of an area where such discoveries may be made.

Of course, city planners take great pains to “rescue” some such neighborhoods, designating them “Oldtowns” or some other cute name, which usually signals that almost all of the original flavor has been siphoned away from the areas as they are “restored”, glossed over, marked with historical plaques, or re-paved with charming cobblestone streets and Victorian light fixtures. We’re not talking about those places here, as they are a sanitized, often bloodless version of life, versus life itself. Jumping off the tour bus is a haphazard process, but potentially rewarding, in that older areas can be seen in real use, in real time, aged but still operating, evoking the past but not encasing it in a showcase, with theme restaurants conveniently located nearby. The term “Discover America”, once a motto of the tourism industry, means just that, “discover”, not “replicate”. Photograph appropriately.