At the fair

There is almost nothing that can stir memories of a certain time in my life, autumn in the 70s, like a visit to the Coastal Carolina Fair.  I don’t get there often — maybe every few years if that — but when I do, a cascade of associations floods over me from the time I lived in Columbia.  In the fall of 1973, not long after I had moved there, I went to the Fair with a new friend from a journalism school photojournalism class, and I beheld, for the first time, the wonder that is a big state fair.   Then, as now, 36 years later, I am overwhelmed by the sheer sensory bombardment:  loud music, the smells of a multitude of fried foods sold at dozens of kiosks and food stands, the whooshing and whirring sounds of rides, and the raucous shouts of mostly young people daring to defy gravity by various means.  

Two weeks ago I entered the gates with great anticipation, for it had been five or six years since I had been to the Coastal Fair in Ladson. This is one of the BIG fairs held in our state each year.  I go ostensibly to see the photography exhibit, but it’s a lot more than that.  Even though I didn’t venture onto any of the rides, I walked around among the thousands of fairgoers, trying to take in as much as I could, and, with my camera at the ready, I was the observer, rapidly shooting photos of  anything and everything that caught my eye.   In these huge crowds, I can be a "street photographer," recording and documenting this great gathering of people from all walks of life.  Yes, there’s still the P.T. Barnum style freakish stuff such as a booth containing the "world’s smallest woman," and the like.  I listened with eerie fascination as a barker lured in the gullible and curious to see this poor creature.   I watched as they came out from the small room, mostly expressionless, with a look that said, "What did I just pay a dollar to see?"  Then, there’s all the games of chance, the livestock exhibits, the foods and crafts, baked goods, pickled this and that, and stages where performers hold forth during the day and at evening concerts.

This whole experience is fascinating to me, not just because of the memories it evokes, but because when I was growing up in New Orleans, I never even dreamed such an event could exist.  We had Mardi Gras, after all, and that was enough of a crowd extravaganza to last a lifetime, one would think.  But the state fair in Columbia those years in 1973 and1974 and again in 1979, was magic to my camera-wielding hands.  Back then, I took rolls of film, black and white and color.   This year, I could multiply my output many times over with my digital camera.  The changing technology of picture-taking made viewing and recording the experience uniquely different.   I felt more free and less inhibited about  taking pictures because there was no limit on the number I could take.

I still feel the excitement in the air that day last month.  For a little while I could revert back to the innocence of childhood and imagine a time and place where everyone was carefree for a day and all the troubles of the world outside the fair gates disappeared.  It was great while it lasted.  

The huge fairground is empty now…. until next year.

Here is a set of photos from that afternoon:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/camas/sets/72157627982708803/