This was an attempt to make a modern digital photo look like a nineteenth-century art photograph. Note the rock climbers preparing to climb the stone wall.
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Seldom Seen Arch in an Artsy Way
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Bloomfield in 1999
Liberty Avenue, Bloomfield, as it appeared in 1999. The picture was taken with an old folding Kodak Tourist camera.
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Same Rowhouses, Two Different Cameras
The same two houses on 40th street in Lawrenceville across from Arsenal Park, taken in 1999 with two different twin-lens-reflex cameras. Above, a Lubitel, a Russian camera with a plastic body but a decent lens and all the usual manual controls. Below, an Imperial, the sort of thing photographers call a toy camera: a cheap old plastic fixed-focus camera that takes 620 film.
The house on the left has had its Gothic peak restored since this picture was taken.
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Alcoa Building (North Shore), 1999
Two abstract views of the newer Alcoa Building on the North Shore at the end of the Seventh Street Bridge. The one above was taken with a Lubitel TLR; the one below was taken with an Imperial plastic “toy” TLR.
Obviously old Pa Pitt is still rummaging through his large library of old pictures.
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Art Deco Row, East Liberty, 1999
East Liberty was down on its luck at the end of the twentieth century, but this row was still filled. The buildings have not changed much since then, fortunately, since this is one of the better Art Deco streetscapes in Pittsburgh, which never really embraced Art Deco as much as many other cities did. Surprisingly enough, Sam’s (no longer Bostonian) Shoes is still here; the terra-cotta tiles have disappeared from the front of that building. Its neighbor Anthon’s is also still in business. Most of the rest of the businesses in the row have changed, but the buildings are still there, and since East Liberty is a trendy neighborhood now, they have a good chance of preservation.
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Tower of East Liberty Presbyterian Church
This picture was taken in 1999 with a Smena 8M, a plastic Russian all-manual 35-millimeter camera that was cheaply made but surprisingly capable.
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Downtown from the Strip
From the corner of Penn Avenue and 17th Street.
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Turbulence
A waterfall and pool in Saw Mill Run at the Seldom Seen Arch.
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Branch Against the Sky
This is actually a color photograph of a branch against a grey, rainy sky; but when old Pa Pitt tried the experiment of converting it to black and white, nothing changed at all. This is therefore a color photograph of a completely monochromatic scene.
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Three Gateway Center in Afternoon Sun
