Photojournalism: A Photograph and its Story

Old Salem. Winston-Salem, North Carolina

This is one of my favorite photographs. I took it in the basement of one of Old Salem's historic houses. The room was lined on both sides with windows like this - probably 6 or 7 windows on each side. Each window was perfectly symmetrical. Somehow, the sunlight was shining through each window the same way. I couldn't pass up the chance for a picture. At first I shot with a wider lens, hoping to get all seven windows to show the striking symmetry. But as I looked through the shots I took, the one with just these two windows struck me the most. So that was the one I worked with. There is very minimal editing on this one - just a desaturation filter and some slight adjustments to the contrast to better show the light on the walls.

This particular shot is a personal favorite of mine. It reminds me of a poem by T.S. Eliot. The poem, "Morning at the Window" is beautiful within itself, but it also fits perfectly with the location of this shot. For those of you who don't know, Old Salem is a historic Colonial town. The homes, shops, and other buildings have been staged as they would have looked during the Colonial age, and the workers dress like men & women during that time while doing jobs that would have been done then. It's definitely a place worth visiting, if you're within the area and have a free day. 

And now, the poem:

Morning at the Window

They are rattling breakfast plates in basement kitchens,
And along the trampled edges of the street
I am aware of the damp souls of housemaids
Sprouting despondently at area gates.

The brown waves of fog toss up to me
Twisted faces from the bottom of the street,
And tear from a passer-by with muddy skirts
An aimless smile that hovers in the air
And vanishes along the level of the roofs.

--T. S. Eliot