John Vachon in Elgin, Illinois
In 1983 I had discovered the town of Elgin, Illinois. I liked the town as it reminded me of where I grew up in Northeastern Ohio. I loved the neighborhoods and houses and found myself photographing there quite a lot. One day, while walking down Chicago Avenue with my Linhof Technika on a tripod over my shoulder and a large bag of film holders, I walked by a house and stopped in my tracks. I had never been by this house before, but I knew it. I had seen it before, but how, where?
John Vachon image 1941
Farm Security Administration trip where he shot about a dozen images while stopping in Elgin, Illinois.
I stood there looking at it and after a bit realized I recognized the house from a John Vachon photograph (FSA— Farm Security Administration) I had seen. His image was of an old woman reading a newspaper in the morning light on her porch swing. A close-cropped image, but I recognized the porch from the window trim. It was unique and I knew that image and proceeded to capture an image of that porch. Of course the porch swing and the old woman were not there, but the image was personal to me. I had found a modern-day location of an FSA image and I thought it represented a really great adventure.
Years later I came back to photography after a long hiatus and found myself back in Elgin shooting the same type of images I shot in the ’80s. I remembered that house on Chicago Avenue and smiled every time I walked by. This finally led me to research John Vachon’s images at the website of the Library of Congress.
John Vachon image of 470 Chicago Avenue, Elgin, Illinois
The house looks to be painted white in 1941. It is truly amazing how the architectural details have been preserved in my photo below from 2022.
I found that Vachon had stopped in Elgin in 1941 and had taken about 12 images. Most of the images were within walking distance of each other and were comprised mostly of images of houses, a street scene on Hill Avenue and a couple of the famed Elgin Watch Factory. The Watch Factory was destroyed in the ’60s, lost to a shopping center, and several of the houses are no longer in existence as well. But, some live on, so I decided to do a small project of rephotographing these scenes as they look today. I didn’t want to just try to recreate Vachon’s image, but decided to shoot these scenes as I would naturally.
© robin w bailey— 470 Chicago Avenue, Elgin, Illinois
Presented in this blog are a couple of images from John Vachon’s 1941 trip to the town and my recreated images of the same sites in 2022-2023. These images represent just a fun little project that has meaning to me. It’s fun to walk in the footsteps of one of my photographic heroes and being able to contemplate how they went about their own projects on the same streets that I find myself photographing today.