Looking North from the Intersection of Locust and South 8th Street
Stephen Bybee
Columbia, MO
2011
I took this photograph in January 2011 during a heavy snowfall. During this snowfall I took four separate photographs from this location, each in a different direction. The four images are meant to function together, with the title Cardinal Points in a Snowstorm. I don’t often title my images in such fanciful ways, nor do I create that many diptychs, triptychs, or quadriptychs. The intersection of 8th and Locust on this particular snowy evening was ideal for a four-panel image, each component image focusing on a different point of the compass. The image I have chosen today is looking north, from the intersection of Locust, towards the distant and historic columns of Boone County’s second Court House, built in 1847 with much oversight and direction from William Jewell. This northward view features old buildings that are now gone, newer buildings that are still standing, a parking garage at the Cherry intersection, and the towering mass of the Tiger Hotel, an inevitable attribute of Columbia’s skyline no matter where or from which direction it is viewed. The remarkable thing is that if you stand in the middle of this intersection today, the right half of the street has not changed, the left half has been demolished and developed, and the Tiger Hotel, parking garage, and 1847 courthouse columns are still standing, just as we see them in this photograph from 13 years ago.