The Mississippi Delta 12b: Return to Clarksdale (with Ektar 25 film)

Shack Up Inn, Clarksdale, Mississippi, Kodak Ektar 25 film, Rolleiflex 3.5E camera, 75mm Xenotar lens

During an Easter weekend road trip through north Mississippi, my wife and I stopped in Clarksdale.

We stayed at the Shack Up Inn, a blues-oriented inn/motel that houses its guests in cabins, silos, and shotgun shacks. It is quite comfortable, and the shacks have been rebuilt and are well-insulated (which was welcome during the night as a cold front passed).

Shack Up has accumulated a large collection of vintage memorabilia - perfect for the photographer with a Rolleiflex.

An unused warehouse was just north of the property. I looked for barn owls but did not find any.

Jade building on Delta Ave., Clarksdale

Deak's Mississippi Saxophones & Blues Emporium, 3rd St., Clarksdale

Art Deco Greyhound Bus terminal, now visitor's center.

I need to return to Clarksdale again and spend more time looking around. There is a wealth of cultural material to record. On my previous visit, wisps of snow and bits of sleet were falling through the gloomy winter sky. Maybe next winter....

The square photographs with brilliant color are from Kodak Ektar 25 film, exposed in my 1959 Rolleiflex 3.5E twin lens camera with a Schneider 75mm ƒ/3.5 Xenotar lens. Click any one of those frames to see the amazing detail. All of the Rolleiflex exposures were tripod-mounted. The duller and more "accurate" photos are from a Moto G5 phone. 

This is no. 02c of my irregular series on Abandoned Films.