You can be civilized but not very civil. Despite having all the institutions of of a modern city: Barber, fire department, and a school Bodie was a rough town that was not very civilized.
I am teaching a composition photography class in September at the Mono Arts Gallery. In researching the material for the class, I have learned a lot of new composition concepts that are having a positive impact on my own photography. When we had a friend come to Mammoth who had never seen Bodie it gave me the perfect reason to go and to look at Bodie differently than in previous trips.
Porch with a view. What amazing stories this porch could tell!
Instead of taking images that were documentation in nature, I wanted to have my images tell a story. Stories about what it must have been like to live in a rough town with a hostile environment. Nature gave me a bonus by providing this incredible cloud show the day we went to emphasize the hostile weather.
Sometimes there is only a thin pane of glass that protects us from the harsh elements. An analogy that our society is fragile and could come crashing down with all the heightened tensions in our world today.
If you look back too much you can get stuck in one place and become a relic.
As I researched for this blog post I wanted to include some interesting Bodie trivia to go along with the images. Just like my attempt of changing the composition nature of my photography my research netted me a different take on Bodie. Instead of a lot of fact and figures about when the town was started or how much silver was mined I found this story about the “Curse of Bodie.”
Live a good story. Could you use any of this stuff today? A reminder that it is not the things we own that are important but the experiences we have.
You would expect the curse to be about the ghost of some innocent who was killed by a gunfighter or some small child that died too young from disease. Instead the curse is a modern day invention “created” for a specific purpose just like the town’s name. The town’s name was changed from Bodey to Bodie so people used the correct pronunciation. (A much more fun theory is that an illiterate painter misspelled Bodey as Bodie on the side of a building and the misspelling became the defacto official name of the town.)
Look at your everyday world as if it was art. You will be a much richer person for it.
The town’s name was created from a necessity. So, did the “Curse of Bodie.” The State of California keeps Bodie in the state of “arrested decay.” What that means is the State tries to keep the town looking exactly like it did when people abandoned it. They will do repairs but only to the extent to keep it looking like it did when folks left. If the building is leaning they will fix the roof or keep it from leaning more but won’t try to straighten the building up. Here is where the invention of the “curse” came in.
Man vs. Nature. Nature always plays the long game and In the end will prevail.
In this arrested decay condition there are artifacts that were randomly left everywhere. When people left they had to travel long distances and did not have the capability to take things with them. Dishes are still by a sink. An oven door is outside leaning against a building. In that environment visitors have a natural desire to take a souvenir. One item missing is no big deal but with thousands of people visiting Bodie every year lots of stealing would have a major impact.
In your life build a safe heaven to provide shelter in the storm. I have found the best shelters from life’s problems are good friends.
Somewhere in the past a few rangers “created” the “Curse of Bodie.” They said that if you took an artifact, rock, or anything from the site you would be cursed from then on with bad luck. They thought the story of the “curse” would deter folks from taking stuff. While it has kept folks from stealing, something else happened. People who did take artifacts blamed bad events that happened to them on the curse. Rangers get letters every week from folks who took items from Bodie that blame the “curse” for breakups in relationships, the deaths of family and friends, even simple things like flat tires. Some go as far as to send the item they took back to the park in hopes of lifting the curse.
"Please find enclosed one weatherbeaten old shoe. The shoe was removed from Bodie during the month of August 1978... My trail of misfortune is so long and depressing it can't be listed here."
Letter to Bodie, undated
Some of the most beautiful paintings are right in front of you. Take the time to stop and enjoy.
Today the Rangers no longer like to speak of the curse because if someone does send something back they have to treat it as a theft and file charges. Not something they really want to do. Besides once an item is removed it loses its historical context that cannot be regained. An example is a piano that was taken and then returned. No one knows what bar or house it came from. It now sits in the town hall like an orphan who does not know where she came from.
Get outside and into the world around you. It is much more colorful than being cooped up inside.
Please enjoy my visual “different” take of Bodie. Enjoy Bodie when you go but remember the “curse of Bodie.” It may be made up but lots of people believe the bad luck of the Bodie “curse” is very real. Let the artifacts lie where they are so others can enjoy them for many years to come.
Bodie is so mean it will even spit at you (rain) on you when you leave.
Please leave comments to let me know if I succeeded in creating a different take on Bodie than you have seen before.
Source Article about the Curse is from KQED see it here.
If you are interested in taking my Photography Class it is on September 28th in Mammoth from 3-6. On the 29th we will do a group photo safari in the morning to put what you learned in action. Sign up here.