The Photography of Dr. Jeffrey P. Harper

Luang Prabang is a UNESCO Word Heritage Site locate in west-central Laos. I was last here 22 years ago and always wanted to go back.  I finally did . . . and I was very happy I did.

Wat Xieng Thong (c.1559) is the most revered Buddhist temple (wat) in all of Luang Prabang. 

Wat Xieng Thong had many buildings within the grounds.  Many had fine, primitive mosaic depictions of life in long gone times.

The state of preservation, restoration, love, and care of all of the wats in Luang Prabang was exemplary.

 

Ancient stenciled patterns on many walls.

 

Lovely work.

 

A special building was built to house this gold leaf funerary carriage.

 

The inside of the funerary carriage temple was astounding!  Such a surprise . . . and many nooks and crannies to look into.

 

A mosaic covered wall with a line of ancient Buddha statuary.

 

Spiritual simplicity depicted.

 

There were many structures to explore at this wat.  I came twice with my camera as it was very close to our hotel.

 

An inviting open temple.

 

A temple gong.

 

Shiny outdoor decoration.

 

This looks inviting . . .

 

A view to the Buddha altar in the main hall.  Magnificent architecture.

 

The main altar of Wat Xieng Thong.

 

A favorite altar.

 

Rich detail in the main hall decoration.

 

A view from inside the main hall to a glowing chedi on the temple grounds.

 

A lovely standing Buddha in a small grotto.

 

Such a pleasant and peaceful place.

 

It was my good luck to be at the temple when a soon-to-be-married couple showed up for their bridal photo shoot in traditional Lao costume.

 

These chedis likely contain the remains of revered monks, abbots, and those who have made big donations to this wat.

 

I have been to many, many Buddhist temples in many countries, but this one is one of the most beautiful.

 

Many small structures for individual Buddha altars.

 

I came back one evening after dinner when the light was changing to a golden hue.

 

Magic light.

 

I will be back to Luang Prabang, and when I do, I will revisit Wat Xieng Thong.

I lived in Leesville, Louisiana from 1958 to 1960, three years in all, from the age of 8, 9, and 10.  The house I lived in is now gone, but I noticed this house and it fit my memory of the kind of house we live in . . . a two story wooden duplex.

 

This house sits at the actual address of our old home -  Vernon Terrace.  It is now across the street from a modern hospital and medical offices.  I played for hours and hours and had innumerable adventures in that forest behind this house. At that time the forest and wetlands within it went on for miles and miles and were teeming with snakes, wild boar, fish, salamanders, frogs, and bugs of all kinds.  Yes, I was a little disappointed that our old house was not there any more. I was also disappointed that the area behind the houses were not accessible . . . I wanted to go back there and look around.   

 

I had the family chore of riding my bicycle the 1/2 mile from our house to this very burger stand and fetch the family order . . . and ride like the wind to get the burgers and fries back home before they were cold. I remember these burgers as the best I have ever eaten. I am amazed it is still there . . . and that I remembered it.

 

There are still houses around the old neighborhood that have survived from the older times.

 

I was very curious about the downtown of my childhood memories.  We used to ride our bicycles the 7-8 blocks to the movie house there for the double features.  Downtown Leesville showed all the signs of the consequences of a Walmart somewhere on the road leading out of town.  The businesses had mostly died a silent death, but it looked like the city fathers had, and might still be, fixing it us.

 

Halloween was only a week away . . . and I was racing to Delaware to trick-or-treat with my two grandchildren.  These decorations reminded me of that. Everything here seems to be named 'Vernon', after the name of the Parish.  All the fire hydrants in town are painted this red, white and blue.

 

The old Dreamland Theatre is now an event venue.  This is the movie house I remember so well as a child . . . watching cowboy movies, cartoons, and news reels.  Also, I have a memory of the entire balcony collapsing during the middle of a movie . . . fortunately we were sitting up near the screen, and there weren't other people in the movie house at the time!  Leesville High School had just held its Homecoming Dance there!

 

I distinctly remember this ticket booth . . . and buying my tickets with such eager anticipation.  I also remember the Milk Duds and Necco Wafers I bought inside before the movies.

 

It's nice to see that someone other than me remembers this wonderful small town movie theatre.  There is (was?) a large military base nearby, Fort Polk, where my father was stationed while we lived there.  There were always a few soldiers sitting alone in the dark theatre, quietly sobbing.  Homesick.

 

There is a charm to these old 'dead' small town commercial districts that have been brought back to life.

 

The task of bring the Leesville Historic District back to life is not complete.  This building has an asking price of US$37,000.

 

There is very little real business going on in downtown Leesville.  Still, this key shop caught my eye. I went in.

 

This man, and his son, have been running this key shop. for 36 years, since they bought it from the old man who had it for 55 years.  Yes, this shop would have been here when I was 9 years old . . . more or less exactly as it looks now.

 

These keys gave me an idea of what kinds of doors are in the area . . . still some old skeleton key doors.

 

Assuming Hundai changes their car key masters every few years, there were either very few Hundai's sold in Leesville, or the local Hundai owners were very responsible.  Dusty Keys . . . potential income locked up in blanks.

 

This mural of the New York City skyline with the World Trade Towers intact really caught my eye.  Leesville is in the deepest of the Deep South, so one would not expect to find anything about New York City, but the impact of the 911 bombings had a profound effect on Americans everywhere.  The sense of having our country 'invaded' meant something in small town Louisiana.

 

The old Vernon Parish Courthouse . . . decorated for Halloween.

 

A public 'book nook' in old Leesville.

 

A walk up 3rd Street, the old 'main drag', brought us to the Museum of West Louisiana.  In addition to these old historical buildings that had been reassembled on their grounds, there was also a restored historic train station.

 

The old rail station, now the Museum of West Louisiana.  A lot of young soldiers passed through here on their way to and from Fort Polk . . . especially during the Vietnam War era.  "In 1962, Fort Polk began converting to an advanced infantry training (AIT) center. A small portion of Fort Polk is filled with dense, jungle-like vegetation, so this, along with Louisiana's heat, humidity and precipitation (similar to Southeast Asia) helped commanders acclimatize new infantry soldiers in preparation for combat in Vietnam. This training area became known as Tigerland. For the next 12 years, more soldiers were shipped to Vietnam from Fort Polk than from any other American training base. For many, Fort Polk was the only stateside Army post they saw before assignment overseas." (Wikipedia, Fort Polk). And a lot of those young soldiers never came back from Vietnam . . . the rail station is full of their ghosts.

 

The rail station doors.  Imagine the emotional send-offs from this platform.  The station was closed in 1968 when regular passenger service ended.

 

I assumed this to be the old station safe sitting outside rusting away.

 

This coin operated kiddie car still sits outside the rail station waiting room. This relic is actually too new to have been there when I was a kid in Vernon Parish.

 

The Museum of West Louisiana placed a few old farm implements around the rail station.  This old horse drawn tiller was fascinating.

 

Old tiller seat.

 

The old rail workers' bunkhouse had fabulous color and texture.

 

The weathered old bunkhouse door.

 

An old bunkhouse window, darkened from the light rain that was falling.

 

Whenever I see these old, weathered windows and doors I am made aware of the man or woman who made and installed it.  What kind of day was it?  What did they have for lunch?

 

Among the old buildings the museum transported to Leesville was this broken well.

 

There was no shortage of artistic still life arrangements around Leesville.

 

The Museum of West Louisiana spared no effort in obtaining authenticity!

 

The view back up 3rd Street.  That tea house looks promising.

 

Hazel's Tea Parlor . . . and its open!

 

Hazel's Tea Parlor is somewhat new to Leesville.  A retired military man and his wife, originally from Philadelphia, came back to Leesville after being posted to Fort Polk many years ago.  It was their lifelong dream to open a tea house.

 

A very cozy place . . . and the scones and tea were excellent.

 

This is what I expected to find of my childhood memories of Leesville.  An old wall with the grocery store sign fading . . . and it was actually there!

 

In June of 2018, as a part of my bigger year-long road trip, my wife and I took a trip from Oregon to the Grand Canyon.  Along the way we stopped at whatever seemed interesting along the way.
In east-central California, off of US Highway 395, is the old ghost town of Bodie, now a popular and much visited National Monument.  It is one of the largest and most complete ghost towns in the USA (Jerome, Arizona is another).

 

We arrived a the broad site of Bodie in a light drizzle under threatening skies.

 

Our first view of Bodie was of scattered shacks and abandoned mine tailings.

 

And after parking and walking into the cluster of old weathered buildings, the layout of a town started to appear.

 

Bodie became a town in 1876 when a productive vein of gold was discovered there.

 

Even though it was mid June, the elevation of 8379 feet (2554 m) combined with the wind and mist, made the surfaces wet, revealing the colors and textures perfectly.

 

 
Bodie had a population of 7000 before the gold was all mined  . . . and was connected to the world by a small gauge rail line.

 

At it's height, Bodie had two churches, a Wells Fargo Bank, a myriad of shops and services, as well as its own hydroelectric generating station 13 miles away.

 

There were 2000 buildings in Bodie at one time.  There are nowhere near that many left today . . . but it is still an impressive sight to see.

 

I am a fan of old doors and windows . . . especially weathered old doors and windows.  I was in photographers' heaven in Bodie.

 

Several of the old general stores still had period merchandise in them.  I am not sure if the items inside were left behind or carefully placed there years ago by over-eager National Parks staff, but the interiors are a marvel.

 

A photo of a general store interior, taken through the window since visitors  could not go in. Fascinating.

 

Bodie sees nearly 200,000 tourists yearly.  The day we were there, we saw two large tour busses and four smaller vans full of tourists from France.  They loved the place too.  The building with the open door is the tourist information center, gift shop, and historical display.

 

The museum had this wonderful horse drawn hearse, as well as many other finds from the site.

 

A lovely collection of amber bottles in the museum.

 

A number of the buildings used some kind of metal siding . . . as well as metal shingles on the roofs.

 

I was fascinated by this metal siding.

 

The small metal sheets were used all around Bodie.  This house used metal for the roof, as a siding, and for various patching.

 

Upon closer inspection, I came to the conclusion that the metal strips were, in fact, opened up 'tin cans' . . . which were made from iron and steel in those days.  Because of the altitude and cold weather (303 nights a year with below freezing temperature), and deep snow (average 10 feet or more of snow per year) in the winter meant they must have had to import a lot of food . . . which at that time was packed into cans.  You can see the can ridges on some of the large metal strips.

 

A kind of early recycling.  In addition, these walls are visually very interesting in their own right.

 

One more . . . just for the artistic effect.

 

1881 was the highest production from the Bodie mines: $3.1 million US dollars.  The total value of all the gold pulled from the ground here was $34 million US dollars . . . a lot of money at that time!

 

There is still a lot of mechanical debris left over from the age of industrial mining.

 

It is interesting to try and imagine where these parts went and what their purposes might have been.

 

Your guess is as good as mine . . . .

 

There were many mine head rigs and tanks across the area.

 

Although the rail line was torn up, trucks continued to supply the town with food, supplies, and machinery.

 

There were some very nice old homes here.  Although it was designated a ghost town as early as 1915, there were still a few hardy souls who lived in Bodie up into the 1950s.

 

This view back in the day would have had many more houses in it.

 

One house had an open door . . . so I went in for a look.

 

Fantastic!

 

Although tens of thousands of visitors come to Bodie every year, it still feels like a discovery to find these old abandoned rooms.

 

I cannot tell if the furniture is original, but those layers of linoleum sure are!

 

Again, some of these old homes were lived in up to the 1950s, so I am not sure if this is one of those houses or it it dates to the end of mining around 1916.

 

"The last breakfast" table still set.  At least they didn't have to do the dishes on that last day . . .

 

Wonderful patina of age.

 

The old wood stove would have been the center of life in this very cold place.

 

Looks like a cozy room . . . at one time.

 

I spent a long time in this old house . . . soaking up the silent beauty . . . and reflecting on the human lives that were lived out here . . . and my own life.

 

Such beautiful visual compositions laying around everywhere.  Another photographers' paradise!

 

The longer we stayed, the darker the sky became . . . we started to move back to the camper at about this point.  There was much more to see in Bodie, but the rain would drive us out.

 

This steel out-house looks like it has tipped over in the past . . . I wonder how this happened?

 

Darker and darker . . .

 

My fellow tourists were heading to cover from the approaching rain.

 

This shop-front must have been beautiful back in the day.

 

This intreguing and tilting little building was beautiful from the front and side (next photo).

 

Such wonderfully defined textures and colors . . . highlighted by the fine mist that has settled on them.

 

Sweet little place . . .

 

Fine, honest door (and self-portrait!).

 

Time to go.

 

The sage brush has reclaimed most of the streets and paths.

 

I would like to come back here . . . perhaps when there is some snow on the ground . . . and better light.

 

Commemorative plaques.

 

And so, we drove off from Bodie.

 

One last look at the scattered shacks and sheds among the sage.

 

We drove back out the 20 miles to US Highway 395 and headed south toward Mono Lake.

 

We pulled over on US 395 at this amazing viewpoint high above Mono Lake.