Rochester Road Trip

Last week my friend Victor and I went on a road trip. Our ultimate goal was the George Eastman House Museum. We were particularly interested in the exhibit of Hungarian-born photographers who also worked extensively in the US. However, we also visited the current exhibit of photographs and cameras from the museum’s collection and the gardens associated the mansion. We skipped the tour of the mansion proper.

On the first day we headed west from NH until we got to Hoosick, NY hard by the Vermont border. From there we headed northwest with our route taking us through the heart of the Adirondack Park. We were hoping for some nice autumn scenery on this leg, but the foliage was pretty much over. We spent the night in Watertown, NY.

On the second day we headed down the southern shore of Lake Ontario. We made stops at the Sackets Harbor Battlefield State Historic Site and the Fort Ontario State Historic Site (in Oswego). Arriving at the museum in Rochester in early afternoon, we stayed until closing time.

After spending the night just southeast of Rochester, we headed back east along US 20 which runs more-or-less parallel to and south of the NY Thruway. We skimmed the ‘top’ of the Finger Lakes and passed by some of central New York’s many dairy farms before picking up the Thruway and hightailing it back to New Hampshire. We arrived home in time for dinner.

Two of the photographs shown below might require a bit of explanation.

“Dye Collection” shows most of a roughly ten by ten foot wall displaying approximately 3,300 bottles of dyes that were investigated as Kodak developed Technicolor movie film. The sight made the heart of this retired chemist go pit-a-pat!!!!

“Kertész‘s Mirror” shows my reflection in a mirror the renowned Hungarian-American photographer André Kertész used for his “Distortion” series of photographs. Here is one of the approximately 200 photos in that series which was published as a book.