Material Everywhere

In a Hampton Field, 2011

It really is true. If you just keep your eyes open there’s something to photograph most anywhere you go.

Like this chair.

I was driving home from a meeting last week and decided to stop by the site of a landmark home that burned down years ago. I was curious to see whether anything had happened to the site. 

The former home site is now part of a university campus. Nothing’s left of the old house but some of the brick foundation and a whole lot of “No Trespassing” signs.

It usually takes more than a few "No Trespassing" signs to scare off an intrepid photographer. But a work-related phone call intervened and my visit was cut short. On the way out of the site, though, I happened to look across the street and see this chair, complete with a soft cushion.

I don’t have any idea how the chair ended up out in this field, how long it had been there or anything else about it. My guess from the design of the chair is that it probably once belonged to the motel located nearby that was in its latter years used as a temporary dorm for the university.

I don’t know much about chair design. But although it looks somewhat dated this one’s pretty ingenious. Chairs are one of those things that you can easily go through life not paying much attention to. But if you do, you’ll notice that there’s an almost unlimited number of ways that a simple chair can be designed. The seat of this chair is cantilevered out over the back. At first glance, you might think you’d fall out of it. But the back legs lean forward as if to pull the arms and backrest forward. They’re also slanted so that it’s hard for the chair to tip over backwards. The lines of the chair go this way and that. But when taken altogether, the chair’s interestingly balanced.

Just sitting out in the field, this chair was, like it was waiting to have its picture taken.