En route to Union Church (see the previous article) I drove south to Lorman, Mississippi, and turned left (east) on MS 522. It is 2-lane and winds through woods and farms in west central Mississippi. I had never been on this road before and was not sure what to expect, but turned out very well, with some interesting old farmhouses and other appropriate decay.
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| House off MS 522 near Harriston Rd. (Panatomic-X film, Fuji GW690II camera) |
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| House off MS 522 |
This beat-up old House was sitting forlorn in the woods just off the road. Amazingly, the poison ivy was not too bad. These were 1 sec. exposures on
Panatomic-X film.
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| Silos on MS 522, Blue Hill |
The modern silos attest to active agriculture in the area. These are in Blue Hill, which looks to be not a real town but just spread-out farms and homes.
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| Cottage on MS 522 (McBride Road), Blue Hill |
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| Combination bus and shack off MS 522. |
Proceeding east on MS 522 (also known as McBride Road) I saw the standard mixture of trailers, old wood cottages, steel sheds, and an occasional McMansion.
These were nice little farmhouses in their day, but many have been abandoned. Where did their occupants go? Do they live in new houses nearby, or did they move away? Are they happy in their new cities/states? Abandoned homes are a graphic symbol of the hollowing-out of rural America.
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| Tractor off MS 28, Pleasant Hill (Acros film, Leica IIIC, Canon 50mm ƒ/1.4 lens) |
Finally, two more examples of forgotten cottages or farmhouses in Pleasant Hill. I need to take more road trips into central Mississippi, which is nice terrain with its rolling hills and woods. It has a different character than the flat Delta, where I have explored often in the past.
Thank you all for riding along.
The photographs above were from 120-size Kodak
Panatomic-X or 35mm Fuji Acros 100 film, exposed in a Leica rangefinder camera.
