Badlands car

After a windy session of 16mm and stills in the South Dakota Badlands we took the dirt road South to link up with the main road to Rapid City. The canyons of the Badlands behind us gave way to the more familiar flat and barren landscape of South Dakota. The dry and hard soil of this area made it prairie dog country. They stand on their back legs watching you drive past and then disappear into their holes as soon as you stop for a pic.
Just before we hit the main road we found the empty carcus of what looked like a car from the late 50s. You see these hulks as police cars in old 50s film noir pieces.
Peppered with hundreds of bullet holes, this old timer has probably sat on the empty prairie for 30 or 40 years. it had a few other items there for company... a fridge, some other bits and pieces and of course the indigenous prairie dogs. I circled the car with the super 8 camera to catch the shafts of sunlight coming through the bullet holes and then set up the tripod for a shot on the 6x7. The wind was bad that day and I had to put most of my weight on the tripod to get a steady shot.

I studied documentary and so am always faced with the dilemma of 'should I move something out of the way to balance the composition?'. The answer is always no.
In this shot my choice was to move further away from the car which would have meant losing the distorted perspective being offered from the wide angle lens but getting all of the random bits and pieces in that were connected to the car, or going for the desired wide angle distortion and ignoring the visual distractions.

Location: Badlands South Dakota

Photographer: Christopher Hartford

Buy this print online:

up to A2+ - £80.00 Up to A3+ - £45.00 Up to A4+ - £30.00 Small Clip Frame - £8.00