Father Pitt

Tag: Monochrome

  • Accordion Player in the Strip, 25 Years Ago

    Accordion player on Penn Avenue

    In some ways the Strip has changed enormously in the past quarter-century. In other ways it hasn’t changed at all. Penn Avenue between 17th and 22nd Streets is still a permanent street fair, and many of the old businesses are still there. This picture, taken in July of 2000, includes the accordion player who used to be a regular character on Saturday mornings. It was taken with a Lomo Smena 8M, and it wasn’t perfectly focused or perfectly steady, so be a little forgiving if you enlarge it.

    Comments

  • Passenger Jet Overhead

    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
    Comments

  • 5 and 6 PPG Place

    Boulevard of the Allies faces of 5 and 6 PPG Place, Pittsburgh
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
    Comments

  • Gateway Station

    Gateway Station above the ground
    Nikon COOLPIX P100.
    Comments

  • Exchange Way

    Exchange Way

    Exchange Way is an ancient alley that has served the backs of buildings on Liberty Avenue and Penn Avenue for two centuries or more. It has never been completely continuous, and a two-block interruption caused the name of the stub of the alley that branched off Cecil Way to be forgotten, so that it was renamed Charette Way when the Pittsburgh Architectural Club opened a clubhouse with its entrance on the alley. But originally that alley was part of Exchange Way, too.

    A good alley is a symphony of textures, and some of Father Pitt’s favorite pictures are black-and-white photographs of alleys.

    Exchange Way
    Comments

  • Eberhardt & Ober Brewery, Dutchtown

    Eberhardt & Ober brewery

    These pictures were taken in 1999 with a Lubitel twin-lens-reflex camera, and old Pa Pitt just happened to run across them a while ago. Very little has changed, and we could probably pass these off as current pictures without remark. The main building is one of the relatively few remaining substantial works of Joseph Stillburg, who for a while was one of the major architectural forces in Pittsburgh. His buildings occupied prominent locations, and most of them were therefore replaced later by even bigger buildings.

    Eberhardt & Ober Brewery

  • United Steelworkers Building

    United Steelworkers building

    It occurred to old Pa Pitt this afternoon that he had never seen a complete picture of the front of this building. It took several photographs and some technical fussing to get the composite picture above, but here you are.

    Entrance
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.

    We also have pictures of the building from Mount Washington and from Gateway Center Park, as well as pictures of the base of the building.

    Comments

  • A Monochromatic Stroll on Firwood Drive in Cedarhurst Manor, Mount Lebanon

    1050 Firwood Drive

    Cedarhurst Manor began to fill up in about 1930, though much of it was empty until after the Second World War. The block of Firwood Avenue just off Bower Hill Road has a representative mixture of houses from the 1930s and early 1940s. Since it was a dim day anyway, we present these pictures in black and white, which makes it easy to compare the forms and masses of the houses without being distracted by details of color.

    1050 Firwood Drive
    1013 Firwood Drive

    This house seems to have been a builder’s standard design; it is almost identical except in material to the house next to it.

    1019 Firwood Drive
    1019 Firwood Drive
    1014 Firwood Drive
    1014 Firwood Drive
    1025 Firwood Drive
    1031 Firwood Drive
    1031 Firwood Drive
    1038 Firwood Drive
    1044 Firwood Drive
    1044 Firwood Drive
    1056 Firwood Drive
    1062 Firwood Drive
    Nikon COOLPIX P100.
    Comments

  • Bookstore After Dark

    White Whale bookstore

    The White Whale bookstore in Bloomfield. This is Father Pitt’s attempt at applying the principles of De Stijl to photography.

  • Ohio Valley Trust Company, Coraopolis

    As seen by a Kodak Pony 135 camera with Efke KB 25 film. The film expired years ago—or rather the printed expiration date was years ago, but the film lives on. Once this roll (which started at 30.5 meters) is gone, however, there is no more. The creaky old Efke factory in Croatia closed down in 2012 on account of “a fatal breakdown in machinery.” The current incarnation of ADOX picked up the formula for Efke’s ISO 100 film, but not this slower film. It’s a pity, because this film produced negatives with fine grain and a wide range of tones, and it was also cheap.

    We also have pictures of the Ohio Valley Trust Company building in color.