The Upside-Down Sky

Rock City Barn KY-18: Kentucky Highway 91 in Caldwell County, near Princeton. 

 

 All told, I found 48 barns with "See Rock City" signs in Kentucky; second only to Tennessee's more than a hundred. Which is not surprising because Kentucky's long east-west shape meant that most travelers coming down from the midwest had to pass through it.

This particular barn is in western Kentucky and is on an obscure state highway well off the beaten path. My memory is not too clear on this, but I think I first photographed it while on a visit to our son Rob, who lived in Paducah at the time. This would have been in the late '80s. 

I had not yet been commissioned to do a book of Rock City barns, but I hoped to make it happen. I had been given a list of barns they were still painting, so anytime I came within reasonable distance of one I attempted to make a photograph if at all possible. 

When I had accumulated 20 or 25 such photos I had prints made from the slides and asked for a meeting with Bill Chapin, then president of See Rock City, Inc.

At that time, Rock City was only maintaining about 85 barns. I told him that if he ever hoped to do a book of the barns, now was the time, because they were rapidly disappearing. 

Bill thought about it for a few minutes and then said, "Okay, let's do it." And that's how the Rock City Barns book came to be. 

The picture shown here is not that first one from the '80s. This one was made just after sunset on July 20, 1995. I've always loved the way the colors in the sky are reversed. 

(Canon EOS A2 film camera, Canon EF 28-105mm f3.5-4.5 lens, Fujichrome 100D film.)

Signed copies of the new second edition of Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to me at 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

Photography and text copyright 2023 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags: photography    travel     Kentucky     barns     See Rock City     Rock City Barns    Canon EOS A2 camera    Canon EF 28-105mm f3.5-4.5 lens    Fujichrome 100D film     film photography