Captured with a DSLR and a Zeiss 21mm Distagon lens. Handheld (there was no room to set up a tripod).

In 2009, I was fortunate to join a "top to bottom" tour of former Air Force Titan ICBM site 571-7, now preserved as a museum. Titan II missiles carried a nine megaton(!) "physics package" in the "reentry vehicle" (which they emphatically assured me had been removed from this missile, but I still wouldn't advise upsetting them too much).

NYC's IRT subway, opened in 1904, is powered by a 600 volt DC third rail running alongside the tracks. Power is fed to the system via a number of substations throughout the city, where high voltage AC is converted to the lower voltage DC used by trains.

Until recently, this was done with electromechanical rotary converters (essentially a combination AC motor and DC generator). They are now supplanted by solid state rectifiers, but a few of the original rotary converters remain operational.

I have mixed feelings about these cold war relics. On the one hand, they're artifacts of what was perhaps humanity's most dangerous folly to date, locking the world in a deadly game where the stakes only went up with each round. This doesn't seem like something to commemorate or celebrate.

On the other hand, these objects, many now destroyed or decayed, serve as visible evidence of just how close to oblivion we are willing to go. And looked at from the right angle, they have stories to tell.

Captured with a small mirrorless camera and 50mm lens.

This hallway reminded me of a sight gag in the Coens' "Inside Llewyn Davis". I like that the two neighbors have to share a doormat.

The starkly bare hallway and contrasting tones between the walls and the doors and floor make this as much a study in abstract shapes as it is about urban living.

Captured with a DSLR and a Zeiss 21mm Distagon lens. Handheld (there was no room to set up a tripod).

In 2009, I was fortunate to join a "top to bottom" tour of former Air Force Titan ICBM site 571-7, now preserved as a museum. Titan II missiles carried a nine megaton(!) "physics package" in the "reentry vehicle" (which they emphatically assured me had been removed from this missile, but I still wouldn't advise upsetting them too much).

A few people have reacted with hostility to this, suggesting that it's pretentious to want photos to be viewed in a particular intended way. I find this weird. No one begrudges a painter for using large canvasses, and photography is no different from that.

Anyway, if you want to print my stuff, go ahead. And if you don't, that's cool too.

The scale of these wind farms is beyond what we're equipped to process in day-to-day human experience. They conquer the landscape in ways we can't fully comprehend even when they're in front of us. In a sense, they're abstract sculptures of themselves, mostly visible in fleeting glances from interstate highways or airplane windows.

Rodenstock HR Digaron-W 32mm/4.0 lens (@ f/7.1), Phase One IQ4-150 back (@ ISO 64), Cambo WRS 1250 camera, shifted vertically -5mm, horizontally -15mm. Cropped a bit.

This humble and functional, yet handsome, art deco structure is the easternmost of three ventilation towers for the Lincoln Tunnel and was completed with its first tube in 1937. The facade was refurbished about ten years ago. It also hosts a large array of cellular telephone base station antennas.

If you like this stuff, there's a sadly out of print book, "New York's Forgotten Substations", with some excellent photos.

https://www.chrispaynephoto.com/books-1-2-1

I have mixed feelings about these cold war relics. On the one hand, they're artifacts of what was perhaps humanity's most dangerous folly to date, locking the world in a deadly game where the stakes only went up with each round. This doesn't seem like something to commemorate or celebrate.

On the other hand, these objects, many now destroyed or decayed, serve as visible evidence of just how close to oblivion we are willing to go. And looked at from the right angle, they have stories to tell.

Rail carfloat services make economic sense only under a narrow set of circumstances, where there's no natural place for a direct overland rail link, the alternative route is very long, and the volume of traffic is too low to justify building a bridge but too high to make it practical to unload and truck the freight by road. San Francisco Bay and NY Harbor are two examples. Crossing NY Harbor from the mainland by freight rail, for example, involves a 250 mile detour upstate and back.

London's Battersea Power Station, built as two nearly-identical halves completed in 1935 and 1955, respectively, was originally a coal-fired electrical generating plant. It was decommissioned in 1983. After being idle for nearly 40 years, the plant has been re-developed as retail space and commercial offices, opened in 2022. Along with the Tate Modern, it gives London a second striking example of large-scale adaptive reuse of an obsolete, but still handsome, power station.

NYC's IRT subway, opened in 1904, is powered by a 600 volt DC third rail running alongside the tracks. Power is fed to the system via a number of substations throughout the city, where high voltage AC is converted to the lower voltage DC used by trains.

Until recently, this was done with electromechanical rotary converters (essentially a combination AC motor and DC generator). They are now supplanted by solid state rectifiers, but a few of the original rotary converters remain operational.

From 1958 through 1980, this incongruous four story monolith was the centerpiece of the "Alameda Air Force Station", a long-range radar site that was part of NORAD's SAGE early warning system. The blast-hardened concrete building served as the platform for an FPS-24 radar system, a massive 120 foot wide reflector that emitted a 5 megawatt VHF pulse, continuously rotating at 5 RPM.

Notoriously, the signal disrupted TV and radio reception throughout the San Jose area.

There were three AT&T radiotelephone sites in the continental US, each with its own transmit and receive antenna farms: Ocean Gate, NJ (shown here, serving the North Atlantic), Miami (serving the Caribbean and the Gulf), and Point Reyes, CA (serving the Pacific).

All the sites have by now been razed, either for redevelopment or as nature preserves. The antennas are mostly gone now.

Captured with a DSLR and a 24mm shifting lens.

During the 20th century, AT&T operated a shortwave "radiotelephone" service for vessels on the high seas. Ships could contact an operator, who could connect them with any landline telephone number they wished.

The North Atlantic station, callsign WOO, occupied expansive transmit and receive "antenna farms" in marshlands near the shore in central New Jersey.

Rendered obsolete by satellites, the service ceased operation on November 9, 1999.

@tomdewar@mas.to thank you!

This was captured with a DSLR and a 19mm shifting lens, from a balcony of another building.

It's mostly an exercise in angles and symmetry. The vaguely wedge-shaped dark cloud that appeared overhead, following the lines of the buildings, created a fortuitous moment.

The Waldorf was closed for an extensive renovation shortly after this was made and has not yet fully re-opened. Many of the rooms are being converted into condo apartments.

The Waldorf-Astoria is perhaps New York's most prominent monument to jazz age luxury and glamor. It's been the traditional residence for US presidents and foreign heads of state when in town (the "presidential suite" was meant rather literally there).

Built over the below-grade railyard of Grand Central Terminal, the hotel was equipped with a private rail siding and platform where guests could park their personal railcars(!). (Andy Warhol once threw a party on the platform.)

NYC's IRT subway, opened in 1904, is powered by a 600 volt DC third rail running alongside the tracks. Power is fed to the system via a number of substations throughout the city, where high voltage AC is converted to the lower voltage DC used by trains.

Until recently, this was done with electromechanical rotary converters (essentially a combination AC motor and DC generator). They are now supplanted by solid state rectifiers, but a few of the original rotary converters remain operational.