Page 9 - Demo

7and slid in an arc, as well as a pair of concave wooden rollers, one twice the diameter of the other. It took me several minutes to realize what I%u2019d found%u2014the hardware for the top of an antique rolling library ladder. I quickly claimed them and, although it took two decades, I was eventually able to incorporate them into the house Lynn and I built for ourselves.Over the years, my fondness for the upper levels of buildings%u2014both inside and out%u2014has continued to grow. Without even thinking about it, I look up whenever I enter a new town, or pass a country church, or spot an isolated, railside grain elevator. The eyes of most people tend to look straight ahead, as if they were wearing vertical blinders, so I sometimes feel like a bit of an oddball with my head tilted back. But I occasionally influence others to look up as well%u2014and they usually smile at something they had never noticed%u2014yet had been in plain sight all along.As Lynn and I were driving around southern Indiana for our last book project (Guardians of the Soul), we passed through dozens of Hoosier towns, large and small. In each, we routinely craned our necks to see the upper portions of buildings, pointing out interesting architectural details to each other. At one point, Lynn suggested that these gems deserved a book of their own%u2014and she coined a title: 2nd Stories. I liked the idea immediately, but wasn%u2019t convinced her title was the best choice. After all, we were admiring some third and fourth stories, not just seconds. So we considered alternative titles such as Heightened Vision, A Higher Viewpoint, and A Different Perspective, but none clicked. The more we deliberated, the more 2nd Stories sounded right. Then an obvious fact occurred to us. The word %u201cstory%u201d didn%u2019t just refer to a different level in a building %u2014it also meant a narrative, or an account of something. And with that realization, the title stuck, fitting perfectly a book which, as a photo essay, tells a visual story. Plus, for many of the older structures, it is a second story%u2014a record of how they appear today, after they%u2019ve changed and aged over the decades.So, that%u2019s how this project started. Of course, like all major endeavors, the basic concept grew, changed, and matured, as it progressed. For example, it didn%u2019t take long before we began noticing all sorts of things up in the air, such as tall, industrial, brick chimneys, bridges, and Eiffel-like microwave towers. As a result, it became important to include captivating structures other than buildings. Originally, I planned to simply shoot the upper levels from atop a step ladder, but once I actually started taking pictures, I realized I%u2019d be using a variety of perspectives. These included close-up details, as well as straight-on shots. Sometimes I%u2019d frame only the upper portion of something, other times I%u2019d capture the whole structure%u2014placing it in the context of its surroundings. These refinements to my original mission led to the upstairs, on top, and overhead of the subtitle. The common denominator is that these subjects can only be seen by elevating your perspective. That is, you need to lift your eyes, or climb, above the terre firma, to which gravity, and habit, so firmly adheres us. When looking at these images, you%u2019ll begin to realize how much is missed if your visual world is limited to ground level. In fact, I guarantee you%u2019ll begin looking up more often, and your world will become larger, more expansive, and dramatically more three-dimensional. Those vertical blinders will be relegated to the past.John Bower