From the Archives: Rolling Fork, Mississippi

Rolling Fork, the county seat of Sharkey County, is a city in the southern Mississippi Delta north of Vicksburg. On March 24, 2023, a deadly EF4 tornado struck the city and flattened a strip through the community. The tornado killed 17 people in Rolling Fork and in nearby Midnight and Silver City. In March, my wife and I donated bottled water to the relief effort (photographs in my May 13 post). 

While sorting through folders of negatives and slides, I found some early 2000s digital and film photographs from Rolling Fork. Here is a quick look when the was semi-intact. The town had been poor and struggling economically for decades, so much of the downtown was in poor condition even 20+ years ago.

Bear Affair, 2008

Rolling Fork celebrates the Great Delta Bear Affair most years. The photograph above was from a cheerful 2008 Affair. The fest celebrates the time that president Teddy Roosevelt refused to shoot a baby bear that had been tied to a tree for him. A toy company saw the marketing potential, and the Teddy Bear has become a beloved children's toy. Despite the tornado damage, Bear Affair returned to Rolling Fork on October 27 and 28. I was out of state, but I read that Elvis showed up. Darn, missed the good stuff again.

Former Courtney's Store (hardware and garden supplies). 

Courtney's Store was a long-time hardware and garden supply vendor on Walnut Street. A friend and I explored many years ago and saw vacuum tubes and other goodies in the back. Mrs. Courtney's son, Willard, was our hairdresser in Vicksburg for some years. He was murdered during a drug deal in Rolling Fork sometime after 2010. 

McKenzie's store, also on Walnut, was mostly demolished by the tornado.

Sharecropper cottage south of town near the former Red Barn

The former Red Barn, built in 1918, collapsed on April 30, 2011. All wood has been removed, but the two silos still stand.

Mont Helena mansion north of town.

Mont Helena is a remarkable colonial revival mansion built by Helen Johnstone and George Harris in 1896. Fire destroyed the first mansion, and I do not know if the one you see today is from 1896 or slightly later. In the late-1980s, the house was vandalized and a wreck, but various owners lovingly restored it. Somewhere, I have some slides of the house in its ruined condition.

53 East China Street, March 2003 (Olympus OM2s camera, 35mm ƒ/2.8 Zuiko Shift lens, Fuji Superior 200 film)

China Street, once a busy commercial hub, was lined with abandoned stores. I do not know their condition now.

24 East China Street, the former Danzig's Furniture store

Barnes' Grocery 614 Chestnut Street) and an asphalt-sided shotgun house (612 Chestnut).

Blue Front Cafe, Chestnut Street (50mm ƒ/3.5 Zuiko Auto-Macro lens)

Grace United Methodist Church, 6260 Grace Road, Grace, Mississippi (35mm Shift Zuiko lens)

The residents of Rolling Fork are a tough bunch and are in the process of rebuilding. Good for them. 

I took the 2003 photographs with an Olympus OM2s camera on Fuji Superia 200 film. I still have two Olympus lenses and need to buy a body on which to use them.

Kodak Plus-X, Another Expired Film Treasure (Abandoned Films 10)

 

Oh oh, trouble. I experimented with another famous discontinued film. I had not used Kodak Plus-X since the 1980s or maybe the 1990s. My photography friend, Jim Grey, sent me two rolls and said go forth and photograph. How could I resist! I loaded the first roll in my Pentax Spotmatic F and rated it at exposure index (EI) = 100. 

Kodak's Plus-X was a staple of black and white photography in the USA for decades during the mid-20th century (1954-2011). Kodak finally replaced it with TMax 100. Kodak claimed TMax 100 would do everything that Plus-X could and could also replace their famous Panatomic-X film. Well, maybe. But many old-time photographers mourned the loss of the traditional cubic grain films and turned to Ilford for its FP4 Plus and Pan F films. But let us drop that controversy for now.  

Here are some Plus-X examples from around Vicksburg, Mississippi. I used my new/old Pentax Spotmatic F camera (see my previous article).

Former gas station/store on Warrenton Road (28mm ƒ/3.5 SMC Takumar lens)

Monroe Street view south (135mm ƒ/3.5 lens)

Green Street (55mm ƒ/1.8 SMC Takumar lens, yellow filter)

Rough apartment on Bowmar Avenue (55mm ƒ/1.8 SMC Takumar, yellow filter)

Washington Street view south (55mm ƒ/1.8 SMC Takumar lens)

Furniture in the woods, Johnson Street

Unfortunately, this is a common disposal method for old furniture here. It's a shame because River City Rescue will pick up old items and sell them at their store.

728 Johnson Street (no longer extant)

This was a basic 1950s or 1960s house clad with asbestos siding. I opened the door, and a homeless fellow was sleeping inside.

733 Johnson Street (no longer extant)

Many early 20th century houses in Vicksburg were built on steep hillsides. The roads ran along the top of the ridges, and cottages had their front doors at street level. The backs were perched over the slope, supported by wood posts. These lots can not be redeveloped once the house is condemned and torn down. This results in Vicksburg becoming less densely developed over time. But yet the city still needs to maintain roads and utilities. Therefore, maintenance remain high but is supported by fewer properties that generate property tax revenue. 

Delta, Louisiana, from the road on the main stem Mississippi River levee. 35mm ƒ/3.5 Super-Takumar lens, yellow filter.

Summary. Plus-X was a refined traditional cubic-grain film. Fuji Acros, my normal 100 film, looks different and is finer grain. But I would not hesitate to use Plus-X if I wanted a mid-speed emulsion. I wish it were still available fresh. Ilford's FP-4, which is current, is probably similar to Plus-X. I last used FP-4 in the 1980s and need to use it again.  

Appendix

This is a 1948 (I think) Kodak data chart for three of their popular 35mm black and white films. At that time, Kodak rated Plus-X with and exposure index of 50. Later (in the 1960s?), when the ASA standard became the normal method of rating film speeds, most films abruptly doubled their exposure index. This  looked convenient, but many old-time photographers continued to give their film extra exposure to ensure that there would be image information in deep shadows. 

Another Look at the Fifth Ward, Houston (TX 12)

 

Fifth Ward

The Fifth Ward is one of Houston's former former political wards. They are no longer political entities, but people still think of them as geographic places. They include historic neighborhoods, and some blocks in other wards have been renovated. The Fifth Ward is rather rough; I posted black and white pictures in an earlier Houston post (please click the link).

 

Mary Street (alley) view north (35mm ƒ/3.5 Supar-Takumar lens)

Former school and recycling company (out of business?), Semmes Street

This molded concrete building, which I am sure was originally a school, resembled the aesthetic of the unused Culkin Elementary School in Vicksburg. I do not know details, but this type of construction appears to have been common during the New Deal era for schools and possibly other public buildings.

Noble Street

Restored shotgun house, Semmes street

2318 Hailey Street

Poison ivy farm, Semmes Street

No services today, 2623 Estex Freeway

A rainy/drizzly day made the Fifth Ward a bit gloomy and ominous. It was perfect for my type of photography. But I did not take my wife to some of the the rougher blocks. 

Follow-Up

After a few hours photographing in the Fifth Ward, what next? 

Flash Drive mobile photography education unit

The Houston Center for Photography at 1441 West Alabama has interesting exhibits and an active education program. Their Flash Drive, housed in a repurposed ambulance, is a working camera obscura.

How about some jazz at the Menil Collection Museum? This was a concert in commemoration of the famous museum curator, Walter Hopps. The estate of Walter Hopps at the Menil included original silver gelatin prints (i.e., real photographs) from William Eggleston, Eugene Atget, Robert Frank, Allan Ginsberg (the beat generation denizen), Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, Dennis Hopper, and W. Eugene Smith. Amazing, what a treat.

The Menil does not have the vibe of a Mississippi juke joint - it is more oriented to the wine and canapés set.

Niko Niko's on Montrose

After a long day, one is tired and hungry. Where to eat? Why that is obvious. Find Greek. There are Greeks in Houston! And they make delicious food and baklava big enough for two. And they have Retsina. Ahh, contentment.... 

(I could handle living in Houston again - but we did that in the 1980s, so not again.)

I took the Firth Ward photographs with Kodak Portra 160 film using a venerable Pentax Spotmatic camera and Takumar lenses. Pentax's Takumar lenses were top grade in the 1970s and are still totally usable on film or adapted to digital bodies. The Spotmatic's light meter works in stop-down mode, meaning the viewfinder darkens as you stop down. For best results, be careful to avoid large areas of bright sky in the measuring area. I still have the correct mercury (mercuric oxide) V400PX batteries for the meter. The camera and lenses are reliable and compact, well-suited for travel. 

Copyright note:

I recently saw some photographs from this blog reposted on Flickr and Pinterest. Some anus lifted them them without my permission. I'm sorry I need to note something as basic as this: these are copyrighted. Ask permission if you want to use some of this material.

Fun in South Shreveport, Louisiana

On the way home from Houston in early 2023, my wife and I decided to break up the trip and overnight in Shreveport. 

To get to our hotel, we took I-49 south and exited to East 70th Street. We entered "that" type of neighborhood:  car shops with razor wire, closed and crumbling shops, burned houses, Popeye's Chicken, plasma centers, dead gas stations, nail salons, Pay-Day loan shops, car bling shops (behind razor fences), and an occasional resident shuffling along in a heavy parka or electric scooter. 

Heading east on E. 70th, we crossed a bayou and oops, what happened? A bicycle trail, insurance offices, the Lexus and BMW dealers, Whole Foods Market, new chain hotels, la Madeleine French Bakery. The contrast is so Southern, so typical. But even after all these decades living in the South, I am still amazed and disgusted.

The next morning, we went back to E. 70th and took a few pictures. It looked worse in daylight. It was an overcast day, and we saw almost no one out and about.

558 E. 70th Street (35mm ƒ/2 Summicron lens)

Apollo Liquor - probably a money-maker (5932 Linewood Ave.)

Grant's Automotive, 6912 Fairfield Ave.

King Tire, 437 E. 70th St.

Fixer-upper house, E. 69th St.

Southern Avenue 

Another fixer-upper house, 249 E. 69th St.

E. 66th St. (25mm ƒ/4 Voigtlander Color-Skopar lens)

No one home, E. 66th St. (25mm ƒ/4 Voigtlander Color-Skopar lens)

Well, this part of Shreveport is pretty horrifying. Why is this type of decay so endemic in American cities? I just don't understand.

I took these photographs of Fuji Acros film with my Leica M2 camera using 25mm, 35mm, and 50mm lenses, all hand-held. I scanned the negatives with a Plustek OptiFilm 7600i film scanner operated by SilverFast software.

Revisiting the Wards, Houston, Texas (TX 10)

Introduction

The Wards are former political subdivisions of Houston, Texas. They no longer officially exist but still represent approximate regions of the city. Their inhabitants associate with their home ward. 

Houston Wards in 1920 (from Wikipedia, in the public domain)

This 1920 map shows the Wards at that time. Note that Hermann Park is in the bottom center of the map, in the countryside then. A hospital was already at the south side of Hermann Park. Just south of this today is the huge Texas Medical Center, with world-famous hospitals including the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. 

The little rectangle at the lower left is West University Place. The community, first developed in 1917,  never became incorporated into the City of Houston. Today, West U is a fashionable and upper-crust community to call home. 

Fourth Ward

Shotgun house, 1410 Robin Street (Ilford Delta 100 film, Rolleiflex 3.5E camera)

Historic wood houses, 1320 Robin Street (Ilford Delta 100 film)

Much of the Fourth Ward that I remember from the early 1980s has been totally transformed with modern townhouses and condominiums. A small cluster of wood houses on Robin Street is (or was) being preserved.

These buildings are in the Heritage Freedman's Town. This was the oldest African-American part of Houston and pre-dates 1865. A local resident told us that the City was trying to preserve a small cluster of the worker shotgun cottages. She said the local residents were upset because a contractor had been chosen without local input and there had been little or no progress in a long time.

The Houston Freedman's Town Conservancy is trying to preserve the heritage and the brick streets.

Fifth Ward

Locomotive approaching Lyons Avenue (Panatomic-X film, 80mm ƒ/2.8 Planar lens)

The Fifth Ward was formerly a working class neighborhood, where many of the men worked at the Port of Houston and at associated industries. Several rail lines cross through the Ward (see my previous article on Tower 26), and I saw warehouses, workshops, and other commercial activity.

Brewster Street, view north (Panatomic-X film, 250mm ƒ/5.6 Sonnar lens)

Brewster Street cottages (250mm ƒ/5.6 Sonnar lens)

Bleker Street (250mm Sonnar lens)

Waco Street (250mm Sonnar lens)

As I wrote in my earlier article, some of the Fifth Ward is really rough. Some blocks of row houses look reasonably well-maintained, but others are horrifying. I did not feel too comfortable exploring on my own and did not take too many photographs. It reminded me of west Jackson, Mississippi.

Third Ward

Restored row houses, Holman Street (Ilford Delta 100, Rolleiflex 3.5E camera)

The Project Row Houses is an art program at 2521 Holman Street. Art exhibits are in some of the houses, while residents occupy others. According to the Row Houses web page:

Project Row Houses is a community platform that enriches lives through art with an emphasis on cultural identity and its impact on the urban landscape. We engage neighbors, artists, and enterprises in collective creative action to help materialize sustainable opportunities in marginalized communities.

Project Row Houses occupies a significant footprint in Houston’s Historic Third Ward, one of the city’s oldest African-American neighborhoods. The site encompasses five city blocks and houses 39 structures that serve as a home base to a variety of community-enriching initiatives, art programs, and neighborhood development activities.

PRH programs touch the lives of under-resourced neighbors, young single mothers with the ambition of a better life for themselves and their children, small enterprises with the drive to take their businesses to the next level, and artists interested in using their talents to understand and enrich the lives of others.

Although PRH’s African-American roots are planted deeply in Third Ward, the work of PRH extends far beyond the borders of a neighborhood in transition. The PRH model for art and social engagement applies not only to Houston, but also to diverse communities around the world.

Former local store, Holman Street at Emancipation (Fuji Acros film)

Fixer-upper house, Bastrop Street at Francis (50mm ƒ/2 Jupiter-8 lens)

No more ice cream, Ennis Street

Unity of Color, 3611½ Bennett Street

The Secret Recipe - well, not any more, 3801 MacGregor Way

The Third Ward is a mixture of light commercial and residential, partly decayed, and partly reviving. 

North of the Gulf Freeway (I-45), the area now called East Downtown has become very sophisticated with restaurants, town houses, and garden apartments. Brass Tacks is a very nice coffee bar and casual restaurant. I biked there several times on the Columbia-Tap Rail Trail.

Further south, the scene becomes a bit more earthy without as much redevelopment (yet).

This completes our short and semi-random tour around three of the Houston Wards. There is plenty more to see. Next trip. Thanks for riding along.