Broadway Diner

When I started sequencing the images in our upcoming three person show at Columbia College, I started all of my edits with this image of the Broadway Diner. If the 17 prints I am framing were a book, this image would be on page one. The Broadway Diner is a location that I am fond of photographing in any season, in any kind of weather, and especially at night. When I first moved to Columbia the diner was located on the west side of Providence, between Streetside Records and Osco Drug. I photographed at that location many a time, fascinated by the play of light on the structure’s metal exterior, and of course drawn by the mesmerizing glow of the neon, lit brilliantly each night.

That location was a little more asphalt and parking lot than the diner’s more recent home on Fourth Street. The diner has everything a night photographer wants in a location, notwithstanding the classical connection between diners and visual artists. It has neon, it has an iconic diner shape with defiantly upturned eaves and corners, and it has a reflective metal surface. And on just the right night, when the skies are full of rain or snow or cold, the darkness of downtown Columbia surrounds the diner and seems to amplify its warmth and its glow.