Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Manhole Covers




Just outside the Art Department of the university where I work, I discovered these old manhole covers on a slope that until recently was covered in honeysuckle. Since the honeysuckle was a home for critters, some of which were undesirable, their habitat was cleared away and the covers were exposed to the light of day. They probably lead to old utility equipment but with improved technology, what we have left are these great covers. The roughness of the one cover is not dirt but a build up of rust that has been growing for about 45 years. The cover with crosses was at one time completed covered with crosses but now more than half of them have been eroded away. It occurs to me that there are no doubt many of these old covers around campus so I am going to try to find more of them. With luck they won't be buried and I'll be able to add to these.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

What great textures! Someone is having fun making photos. Glad to see it! :)

We're going to have to go on a little photo adventure togethar one of these days.

Anonymous said...

What a stupendous idea! I know where that spot is, and I'm trying to remember where I saw another one with a whole bunch of crosses on it. But, this one is better, more character. Great color. We have to talk.

paris parfait said...

I like seeing old "artifacts" like these and how they've weathered time. Thanks for sharing these photos!

Jennifer S. said...

very cool, love all the RUST!

Jeremy said...

These are great. They are nearly as rusty as my battered old Nissan.

Kris said...

Cool find Anne! Great photos too...I'd like to reach out and feel the texture.
I wonder what other treasures are buried around there. Hope you find lots more.

Joy Eliz said...

I love the one with crosses. I really need to get out with my camera and explore:)

Annie Jeffries said...

Message from Aileen http://aileensmusings.blogspot.com/

- Hey I loved the manhole covers....I took the liberty of adjusting them in my graphic's program for you so you can see the detail better and I've attached them to this email.

My reply to Aileen -

And Wow, what an improvement Ai. I switched the pictures out. I need to devel more deeply into the mysteries of my photo editing programs. Thanks!

Lauri said...

I love old manhole covers! I take pictures of them myself.

And I really need to learn Photoshop! lol!

jenclair said...

Manhole project

I couldn't locate the manhole cover project that originated in Europe. Fascinating pictures that people started sending in from all over the world of interesting examples, but the Seattle project is also interesting.