I don't think this qualifies exactly for today's #BlueSkyArtShow theme of #Growth, but it crossed my mind yesterday when I was checking out the remains of the historic Carbonton Dam, west of Sanford NC. the dam along the Deep River is long gone, but part of the hydroelectric plant tower remains

Longleaf pine #Growth at sunset, near Freedom Park behind the Archives building, Raleigh NC. The longleaf pine is the state tree of North Carolina, and was once used in naval stores production throughout the Southeast and is also featured on the State Toast. #BlueSkyArtShow

#Growth Vacant lot, Martin St., Raleigh NC, Aug. 4, 2024. DK Thompson Collection/Southern Folklife Collection/UNC-CH #BlueSkyArtShow

Under #Growth and graffiti, concrete block in field near UNC-Charlotte off N. Tryon St., Century University Apartments in background, Charlotte NC, April 2, 2023. DK Thompson Collection/Southern Folklife Collection/UNC-CH #BlueSkyArtShow

memory feed this a.m. had a post on May 30, 2019 about the passing of guitarist Jeff Walls the night before. I can't say I really "knew" him, but I certainly knew of him being in Guadalcanal Diary. By the 90s I would photograph him with Hillbilly Frankenstein. I later connected with him when he was

memory from today, May 30 2017. pro-tip: find another view when you're around a bunch of media clumped together.

May 29, 2018 - I would cover NC Poor People's Campaign--"The War Economy: Militarism & the Proliferation of Gun Violence" protest outside the Legislature and action outside of a committee meeting in the Legislative Office Bldg where about a doz arrests occurred. I was caught on camera over there

from the me memory feed this a.m., working with the N&O Collection from the State Archives. this was a common practice. the hole was for hanging the uncut roll of film from a hook in the lab. clipped neg would have been chosen to print. typically you used that notch to locate the neg in a carrier

Relic

selfie flashback to May 28, 2014. office window of NC Legislature building.

Artifact of the day from the studio back in 2019 is a rather unassuming object, however it was a sash belonging to suffragette Gertrude Weil. iykyk

on the main drag in Bonlee NC, April 25, 2026. DK Thompson Collection/Southern Folklife Collection/UNC-CH #WindowsonWednesday

From the studio this day in 2016, another photo I did for the WWI book. this bottle would have been straightforward, but the "Lysol" logo on front was a little tricky to render. this setup uses one approach to glassware, which is to put the light behind then use black cards to cut reflections.

Back in May 26, 2023, I took a trip down to Sanford NC to check out the "Piedmont Blues" mural by Britt Flood, an homage to the band "Pink Floyd" namesakes of Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. While there I checked out a few other murals in town including 3 by Scott Nurkin and the "ghost signs"

Memorial Day Service, Raleigh National Cemetery, Raleigh NC, May 27, 2024. DK Thompson Collection/Southern Folklife Collection/UNC-CH

Little bit of Memorial Day objects from the studio, first up a Medal of Honor, one of only two awarded to NC soldiers during WWI. this to Private Robert Lester Blackwell, 118th Regt. 30th Div, KIA in Saint-Souple France, Oct. 11, 1918. I shot the MoH on 4x5 chrome years ago, the other is D3X in 2016

Circle City Books, downtown Pittsboro NC, May 24, 2024. DK Thompson Collection/Southern Folklife Collection/UNC-CH

studio memory this day from 2019- sorry no set up snaps. L. Polk Denmark was an aerial observer during WWI, if the name "Denmark" seems familiar it's because the family ran a photo studio in Raleigh in the 19teen-20s and used the name on a watermark. after the war he became a civ engineer & mapmaker

Big or #Tall ? Pencil as protest prop outside the NC State Legislature, at a Moral Monday on April 25, 2016. #BlueSkyArtShow DK Thompson Collection/Southern Folklife Collection/UNC-CH

A bit of #Tall advertising for the "House of Toyz” in Henderson NC, off Raleigh Rd., May 18, 2023. DK Thompson Collection/Southern Folklife Collection/UNC-CH #BlueSkyArtShow

studio memory for 10 years ago, 2016. more for WWI book. the smallest item on this cart was a button, largest was a test projectile that weighed about two hundred pounds.

In my memory feed today, a May 23 2017 Moral Monday protest on a rainy day. Even though I had to bag up my gear, the light was nice & soft. the Think Tank "hydrophobia" covers work great, but a plastic bag will do also. pro tip here is to use zoom lenses, don't wanna be changing lenses in the rain.

saw this at work today back in a storage room. I have questions

had a request for a medal of honor, so I came into work thinking it’d be like the Medal of Honor i shot once. Nope it’s the other one. UCV southern cross. Done a few of those as well

FB memories today was a post I had about news that Tommy Edwards had passed away, this time back in 2021. I had the opportunity to photograph him a few times at various IBMAs as well as the time he played at the museum for a series we had for an exhibit. He was a fixture in the regional scene.

another Studio 101 from the memory feed today, back in 2021. yet again another object behind glass, this time with a twist. it was convex shaped and required the black cards flagging the camera position to be tapered inwards to feather the light. linear polarizing gels are used on lights.

In the memory feed this a.m. was a scan I had made during the Covid shutdown, slide of a trip to Spencer Shops (NC Transportation Museum) where the museum has a large artifact in storage. The French Gratitude Train boxcar that was sent to NC in 1949. The objects packed inside are stored at MOH

FB memory is full of May 20th trivia today. NC didn't have an official state flag until the Civil War. On May 20, 1861 the state seceded. a flag was created for that with two dates symbolic of breaking ties. May 20, 1775 is the now debunked "Meck Dec", May 20, 1861 is date of secession. Museum work

Studio 101 flashback fro May 19 2017 - another installment of how to copy framed art behind glass. put the camera in a shadow, as well as everything in angle of view that reflects. no light = no reflections. easy peasy. this was for the traveling ex from Red Cross "Wounded Warriors" project

In my memory feed this morning. that time right after the Covid shutdown when things were still a bit dicey, that I covered a lecture at a sold out Memorial auditorium and was one of only a few, all staffers, who were masked up for the night. I worked 4 hours or so straight in an N95.

May 18 2023 - took a trip to Henderson NC for another Scott Nurkin musician mural, this time for Ben E. King. It's painted on side of an old tobacco warehouse. There are about 25 or so of the NC Musicians Murals throughout the state, painted by Nurkin. I have a plan to document them all eventually

a FB memory from today came from a staff request for images of the Arthur L. Butt panorama, which although the name is funny, the artifact is interesting. several very long rolls of canvas panoramas painted to represent scenes from the Old Testament for a traveling show. This is a digital image 2004

May 18 2021 - a passerby reads the BLM signage, "The George Floyd's of Raleigh", on boarded up windows of Kimbrell's Furniture in downtown Raleigh NC during the Covid-19 shutdown. The installation listed the names & bios of those killed by law enforcement in town.

May 16 1961 was also the date that the Alamance Battleground historic site opened up, commemorating that skirmish the sealed the end to the Regulator Movement in NC, in the runup to the Rev War. these pix are from the museum's "Kodaslide collection" which were the early color files for the photogs

couple of May 16 protests popped up in the memory feed. 2016 and 2018. Historically May is a month of protests though going back to the Civil Rights era. I used to refer to May as the start of "protest season".

I've never been much of a #Morning person, as evidenced by the fact of searching thru my files only pulls up one image for the #BlueSkyArtShow. This shows Hasil Adkins on left, with Ted from the Chicken Wire Gang and SCOTS bassist Mary Huff, as the sun rises after an all nighter. Chapel Hill 1994.

the snaps of these signs were also a FB memory for today from back in 2018. I started collecting protest ephemera as provenance for the photos I was taking. Over the years I have donated most to either the museum I work for, or to UNC-CH where the donated photos wind up.

another FB memory today showed scanned prints I had made from the original negatives in the N&O Collection at the State Archives of NC. May 15 1963 was at the height of the Civil Rights movement in town and there scores of sit-ins and protests resulting in hundreds of arrests.

quite a few interesting tidbits in the FB memories today. first up is a pair of socks in situ. these were one of the first things I photographed for work. traveling across the state to historic sites to photograph on 35mm, artifacts being considered for an exhibit. 1993 before smart phones.

Must have been Civil War day in the studio this time back in 2016. no setups here beyond the one for the horn, which needed to be boxed in with scrims. I do have some comparison & supporting images that were done on 4x5 chrome film. digital borne is all the D3X and 85mm PC tilt-shift Micro Nikkor

In my memory feed today I had a couple of music related pix from those who would pass away around May 13, 2025. Sugar Hill Records founder Barry Poss and Jo Jo Wallace, guitarist and singer with the gospel group, the Sensational Nightingales for over 70 years.

there's a relic in my FB memories for today, no not the artifacts, but the 20 year old digital borne image of the flag detail. These are related to the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse, May 11-12, 1864 in VA during the Civil War. the ambrotype was copied on 4x5 chrome film.

May 11 2023, I would photograph these two SLUTO mosaics in downtown Raleigh NC near Boylan Heights. They had originally appeared about a year earlier, but by August that year someone had vandalized them by chipping them off with a railroad spike. at one time there were about 8 mosaics in town.

In the studio this day back in 2017, I had two dresses 100 years apart. 1870s - 1970s. the 1870s one had 6 views, the other had 3. these were more for the "Shape of Fashion" exhibit.

I know this is not a particularly dynamic image, but I can't help but notice how little the Devil's Tramping Ground has changed in the 60+ years between this slide and the image I took a couple of weeks ago. I visited it back in mid 90s and shot some film back then as well, looked same.

this day in studio back in 2019. the hand fans were for a social media request, and I tried to jazz up what would have been a boring flat table top grouping by using clear acrylic to "float" them with a colored gel in back. the second was for the Toy exhibit we had in the works. both are hotlights

Flashback from May 10 2017 and a DCR moment of zen when I spotted the late Betty Ray McCain (left side in reflection) at an event I was working at the Carolina Country Club. She was a much beloved figure in Democratic Party of the state, and inarguably the best Secretary DCR ever had.

Not quite #BlueSkyArtShow material, but most of my work is in documenting speech and signs at either protests or in street art. I was looking thru my files for the #Soft theme and came across these homemade signs. I'm always on the lookout for one-off material as opposed to the mass produced.

#Soft prize toys at the NC State Fair, Raleigh NC, 2000. I shot this on half-frame 35mm, printed & toned using Kodak Polytoner which was polysulfide toner that had a range of tones depending on dilution. I used a quick dip to keep the highlights colder. #BlueSkyArtShow scanned from print.

#Soft faded colors on an American flag themed RV spare tire cover found in the visitor bus lot on Jones Street, Raleigh NC 2024. #BlueSkyArtShow - DK Thompson Collection/Southern Folklife Collection/UNC-CH