Barns and other rural buildings will someday disappear. Each year more and more fall into neglect and eventually will collapse or be torn down. But many of these old buildings remain. Within a few miles of where I live dozens of farm buildings and barns still stand as icons of a rural past.
Drive-in theaters also once dotted the landscape but they are rapidly disappearing and, unlike barns, may be gone completely within a very few years. According to Carl Weese, the necessity of upgrading to expensive digital projectors may be the death knell for most if not all of the remaining drive-ins, and he is determined to record as much of this important part of our cultural history as he can before the last theater closes its gates.
Carl has traveled extensively east of the Mississippi to document the theaters, working in large format black and white. Now, with the demise of so many theaters imminent, Carl is planning an extended trip to the west to photograph the remaining theaters and has launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund his trip. In addition to an excellent introduction to this project on the Kickstarter page (including a video), Carl has more information on his Working Pictures blog, and Mike Johnston had a nice write-up on The Online Photographer yesterday.
If you are of a certain age, you will most likely have fond memories of starlight nights with a speaker hanging on the window and the white screen backed by a dark line of trees. Supporting Carl's work is a good way to help preserve the memory of this unique American institution.
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