As a photographer participating in Project 52 run by Don Giannatti each week we are presented with a new assignment. We then have 2 weeks to complete that assignment, so I am often juggling 2 assignments at the same time. Not a bad thing, as just like any other profession in the world dealing with multiple assignments at the same time is just part of every day work. For the latest assignment we were tasked with providing a photograph to go along with an article about the local weather, and the impact the weather has had on the community (could be positive or negative).
As the weather in New England has been pretty extreme this winter, the opportunities just seemed endless. While there has been lots of good and bad with this winter, I opted to show some of the negative things that we have not seen here all that often. With all of the snow and cold weather that we have had there has been a severe problem with roofs collapsing, especially in buildings that have flat roofs. They simply cannot handle the weight of all the snow that we have received. The news has been filled with stories of collapses, and images of people on roofs with snowblowers and shovels. Stores and schools across the region have been closed so that structural engineers can check the integrity of the buildings. One local elementary school had its roof collapse, but luckily no one was in the building at the time.
A local gas station found that the awning over the pumps simply could not support the weight of the snow and began to tip slowly towards the ground. While nobody was injured, the impact to the community is rather large, as the station has had to close until repairs can be made to the station. A local community is without its gas station/convenience store indefinitely, a number of people are now out of work, and the business is not making any money in a very tough economic time.
I found that trying to take images for this assignment was rather difficult. When I first heard a picture of weather, I thought that this would be easy. We have plenty of lousy weather, how hard could it be. But just like anything else in photography, this assignment is all about telling a story with an image. The more i thought about it the more I wanted to capture an image that was worthy of a news article, something that could really support a story on the news or in the paper. An interesting angle, the orange cones, and the warning tape all convey the gravity of the situation.