Cooking in the Monastery, Meteora, Greece (1996)

Meteora is a spectacular scenic and architectural treasure in Thessaly, central Greece. A remarkable collection of vertical plugs of sandstone and conglomerate rise up from the plain. Starting around 1000, hermits moved into caves on the rock pinnacles. In the second half of the 14th century, monks established Eastern Orthodox monasteries on these remarkable rock pillars. The monks sought isolation from the mortal world, a bridge between the mortal and the divine. The precipitous rock pillars also provided safety from bandits and marauding Turkish troops. At its peak, Meteora had 24 monasteries, but only six are active now. 

Ecclesiastically, this complex of monasteries is second in importance to the remarkable ones on Mount Athos in northern Greece. I visited Athos in 1995, a memorable trek.

The Meteora region and the architecture are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

My stepdad and I visited central Greece in mid-1996. We stayed in a hotel in Kalabaka, the major town nearby. Then we spent two days exploring the monasteries that were open for tourists. Some are now ruins and dangerous to access.

Village of Kastraki

Holy Monastery of Rousanou and the village of Kastraki

Evening in Kastraki

Grand Meteoron

The Holy Imperial Monastery of the Holy and Great Meteoron is a spectacular architectural treasure.  "In 1340 St. Athanasios of Meteora occupied the ‘Platylithos’, the rock which he was to name ‘the Meteoron’ (i.e. the rock suspended between heaven and earth), and went on to lay the solid foundations of cenobitic monasticism at the Meteora." Their web page provides history and visiting information. 

The ancient buildings house chapels, libraries, storage rooms, workshops, and kitchens. 700-year-old kitchens? Smoke-darkened pots and hearths? What could be better? 

Food Preparation

Sure, these old utensils have been staged. But some penitent monks used them years and centuries ago to prepare food for the members of the monastery. 

Storage

Food storage was always an issue. The monks needed supplies for the harsh winter months. They also needed to protect their supplies from marauding bandits. In times of war or banditry, villagers may have taken refuge in the monastery. 

Sewing and Farm Equipment

Meteora is a gem. Go there as a life goal! But the area is now grossly over-touristed, so visit in the off season. 

I took these photographs with a Rolleiflex 3.5E twin lens reflex (TLR) camera with a 75mm ƒ/3.5 Xenotar lens. These are long exposures (1/2 sec and more). I braced the camera on railings or shelves. The Rolleiflex is well-suited for this type of work because you can place it on a shelf, look down into the viewfinder, and use a cable release or the self-timer to trigger the long exposure. The camera does not have a moving mirror and is almost vibration free, so it is perfect for long exposures. The film was Tri-X professional 320 film, exposed at EI=250. I developed it in Rodinal (the genuine Agfa product) at 1:25. I measured the light with a Gossen Luna Pro Digital meter.

My Last Kodachrome Slides Ever? Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 2008

In my (messy) archives, I found a box containing Kodachrome slides from November 2008. I think this was the last roll of Kodachrome that I ever exposed. 

Kodak discontinued production of the film in 2009. Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kansas, ran the very last processing anywhere on January 18, 2011. It marked the end of a 75-year era of the famous Kodachrome, a color film that defined and characterized color photography in the mid-20th century.

Here are some examples of this last roll of Kodachrome 64 (K64) from Vicksburg and Edwards, Mississippi. Click any picture to see more detail.

Vicksburg Stores

Former store, 1720 Military Avenue

Closed store, 1326 Magnolia Street (35mm ƒ/2 Summicron lens)

Church

Mount Calvary M B Church, East Avenue, Vicksburg

Corner stone, Mount Calvary MB Church, East Avenue

A recent street view on Google Maps shows that the church has been painted a light color. Note that in 2008, it still had diamond-shaped asbestos roof shingles. 

Cottages

2901 Cherry Street

1200 Harrison Street

Vicksburg had so many of these little early-20th century cottages. One by one, they would be abandoned and, finally, condemned by the city inspector. The word, "Demo" on the Harrison cottage means the inspector has marked it for demolition. This is an example of the deconstruction emptying out of American urban centers.

Speed Street School

This handsome brick school stood at the corner of Speed and Marshall Streets in Vicksburg. Built in 1894, it served as a school until 1940. In 1968, it was divided into low-rent apartments. Two former City employees told me that shootings, fights, drugs, and rapes were continuous trouble when it was used for low-cost housing. I explored inside after the tenants were expelled, and the apartments were horrifying. A Louisiana company demolished the building in 2008 and recycled bricks and timbers. The site is now a grass field.

I took these pictures with my 20mm ƒ/5.6 Russar lens. It was a challenging lens to use well but provided an amazing wide view for settings like this. These are all tripod-mounted.

Edwards

Serious traditional Detroit iron

Edsel sedan - yes, a bit weird

A fellow on the north frontage road at the Edwards exit of Interstate 20 had a serious collection of old Detroit cars. Maybe I could have commissioned him to restore the Edsel for me. Well, maybe not.

I took these photographs on Kodachrome 64 film with my Leica M2 camera and various lenses. Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kansas, developed the film in the last operating Kodak K-Lab processing machine. I scanned the slides with a Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED film scanner using NikonScan 4.03 software running on Windows 7. 

20mm ƒ/5.6 Russar lens - superb optical performance

This is a late, black version of the Russar lens. It has a M39 thread-mount, so to use it on a Leica M camera, you need a M-LTM adapter. Lomography reintroduced this lens around 2017.

I have posted previous articles that were based on Kodachrome slides. Rhode Island in 1977 is one example. 

From the Archives: 1990s Kodachromes from Vicksburg, Mississippi

Vicksburg, Mississippi, had so much interesting photographic material. I am glad I explored when Kodak's famous Kodachrome film was still available and could be processed by laboratories equipped to handle the special chemicals and techniques. I used Kodachrome until near its final end in the early 2000s. It is gone forever and will not be revived, despite the requests from old-timers. Here are some samples from the 1990s.

Fairground Street Bridge from top of an oil tank 

Rear stairs on Grove Street house pre-renovation (20mm ƒ/5.6 Russar lens)

Deconstruction, 807 Main Street

Chevrolet, Grove Street

Vicksburg depot and tracks used by Vicksburg Southern Railroad (VSOR)

View east to Mulberry Street from depot 2nd floor

I looked into the former depot (now housing the Old Depot Museum) and saw some youngsters. They said they rented an apartment on the second floor. They generously let me take some photographs from their balcony.

Lower Grove Street

Discount Barn, Levee Street

Former McKay Motors on Washington Street (150mm ƒ/4 Super-Takumar lens)

Cottages, 505 and 507 Fairground Street (200mm ƒ/4 Leitz Telyt-V lens)

Pearl Street view north (50mm)

This ends a short look back in time. I have hundreds of more Kodachrome slides of Vicksburg. Will I ever have time to scan them?