Shining a Light Under the Boylan Ave. Bridge

posted by John Morris in Cityscape
April 23, 2009

As uliveandyouburn so elequently stated a few months ago, the underbelly of the Boylan Avenue bridge is a collection of the dark and dirty parts of Raleigh. For decades it served as a transit point for train hoppers as well as hobo camps. Now, it’s mostly quiet.

The Bloomsbury Estates condos are within eyesight from the tracks, and the Boylan Bridge Brewpub is almost directly above. Both are developments that give a new look to the gateway of Boylan Heights.

I decided to give a new look to the underside that gateway, in my own way, to give this hidden spot of Raleigh even more beauty.

(this is the first part in a forthcoming series of ‘shining a light’ on the dark and hidden parts of Raleigh)

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There are 6 Comments to this article

keys says:
04/23/2009

Wow, John, that’s lovely! How did you do that?

uliveandyouburn says:
04/23/2009

I’m kinda sad I wasn’t invited.

John Morris says:
04/24/2009

uliveandyouburn – sorry man. I thought you were focusing on school? Let me know when you’re ready, we’ll find some places to scrawl some light on.

Keys – Thanks for the compliment. It was a long exposure, some stage lighting gels, two pieces of cardboard and a light source (LEDs, flashlight, anything will work). I used the flash and gels to put color on the supports. I had one cardboard cutout of a star shape, and another one to cover it up. I simply moved the cardboard to very briefly expose the cutout over top of the light source, then moved back a foot or so, and repeated the process.

I explain the process (when people are involed) in a bit more detail on an old blog I no longer maintain: http://darkphotography.org/2008/03/22/simulating-multiple-exposures/

NCSU says:
04/24/2009

John,

Neat pictures.

Do either you or Raleigh Boy have any photos of the old suspension bridge that used to cross those tracks?

Raleigh Boy says:
04/24/2009

NCSU – Well, as a matter of fact, I do. I’m thinking of doing a post on the bridge’s 1982 demolition at some point, so stay tuned. You can just glimpse it in one of the pics in this post

http://goodnightraleigh.com/2009/03/time-traveling-to-the-thrifty-food-market/

btw– it was a truss bridge, not suspension.