Charlie Patton Blues
There has been a lot of really good color around recently. Not sure if it is an openness, awareness and appreciation of it in my mind or perhaps clear spring days with minimal haze and really good light. Either way it is creeping into the images I make. I tend to be an opportunist as a photographer. Even if I have a plan for images I want to make at a given point in time, I am not oblivious to images that want to be made.
I was on a photo walk a few weeks ago in Richmond Indiana, with a plan to finally capture an architectural abstract of the 1960’s era aluminum façade of an old bank building while also adding to my growing portfolio of layered reflection images shot in empty store front windows. As I walked along I saw an older downtown brick building probably from around ~1900 that caught my eye. Every town in America has plenty of these era of buildings. What caught my eye here was the color the old bricks had been painted, a smoky gray-ish blue. A beautiful color and the sun was just lighting it up. I went around to the side street to see what the side of the building held and it got even better.
A fire escape painted loudly in jet black was a perfect contrast to the blue on the bricks, long black shadows draped the building. Then I noticed the other element. A mural of Charlie Patton. Who’s Charlie Patton? Charlie Patton was a pioneering 1920’s era blues musician from the Mississippi delta. Which of course begged another question. Why in the world was he on the side of a building in Richmond, Indiana?
Well, I knew a good part of the story before looking into it further. Richmond Indiana was once the home to the Star Piano Company. Its factory was situated in the hollow Whitewater river gorge, the factory itself situated on the river. In addition to making pianos, they also had a recording studio that recorded and made 78’s for a growing consumer market. Gennett had its niche finding, recording and distributing some of the original recordings of the Jazz age. Their portfolio extended beyond jazz, including country, gospel and blues as well. One of the blues artists that recorded in the studio? Charlie Patton.
A bit about how Charlie Patton found his way from the delta to the studio on that day and that recording session is covered HERE.
The remains of the Gennett legacy lingers on in Richmond beyond just a mural on a downtown building. Remnants of the factory remain down in the gorge. They are the man made highlights of the walking trail winding through the gorge, one of my favorite spots for a short hike. One of the factory buildings still stands and has been refurbished into an open air stage and market venue. The old smoke stack towers and there is a walk of fame featuring around 30 bronze records recognizing the groundbreaking and famous artists that recorded at the studio. Some cell phone images of the site from a few years ago are in the slide show below.
As for the Charlie Patton Blues image, I didn’t think that much of its composition at the time. I loved the color but didn’t think the overall image was overly compelling. If I had I probably would have tended to adjusting the verticals with a little more dedication. Looking for something different to toss up on my 500px feed, I chose this image one day. Relatively speaking, it blew up. I take two things from this. Sometimes we aren’t the best judge for the worth of our own images and that Europeans must know and love their Blues!
As for Charlie Patton, you can begin wandering through his musical legacy with a gospel tune HERE.