Koonse Glass, 10th Street
Stephen Bybee
Columbia, MO
September, 2011
I was once asked by a Journalism student why I seemed to prefer taking night photos during inclement weather…especially snow. At the time, I intuitively knew how the weather affected my photography and my creativity, but I did not know how to answer the question. Taken in late September 2011, this scene was photographed one block north of last week’s Wabash Depot image. Same year, different season, very different weather. And although she is a blur, this photograph does contain a human moving quickly and purposefully through the scene. Unlike many of the photographs of nighttime Columbia I have been posting to Facebook each Friday morning since October, this image is not snowy, not misty, and has none of the romantic qualities that are a hallmark of some of my earlier imagery. It is simply a clear and competent document of the building on this corner of Columbia’s 10th Street and Park Avenue, a building that at the time of the photo housed Koonse Glass, and before that had served as a Farm Bureau building and even briefly as a carpet outlet. Within four years of taking this photograph, Koonse Glass had moved out to a new location, and John Ott began to creatively repurpose the building for a new use. Since 2011, the businesses housed in this corner building have included DrinKraft Kombucha, Three Story Coffee, and now Acola Coffee with Busch’s Floral. Jinna Yoo’s Le Bao occupies the east end of the building. But back to that question posed to me so many years ago…there are many reasons I could give. A certain photographer might photograph at night during snowy or rainy weather for the same reason that a certain painter only paints at sunrise…because of the quality of the light, because of the atmosphere, because of the heightened visual interest lent by moisture or temperature or the combination of the two. Or it could be a perverse desire for personal challenge. I think I could explore this question and give you pages of text about my motivations for photographing at night, and in weather that makes most people want to stay home, but I would never get this night photo posted this morning and whatever else I might need to accomplish today would probably not get accomplished. So, to sum it up in concise fashion: Bad weather makes me feel good.