The Cabin

2009 — Photography

32"x44" c-prints from 4”×5” Kodachrome film slides

The Cabin is a deeply personal photographic documentation of the cabin that has been in my family for 5 generations in the Colorado Rockies. I took these at a time when family dynamics were heavily shifting, and anticipating loss, these became an effort to preserve my own memories of the location and contents before alteration.

The Small Bed

The New Stove

The Big Bedroom/Patty Hearst’s Dresser

The Hoosier/Junk Corner

The Deck Door

The Shower Full of Spiders

The Antique Chair

The Antique Bedroom/Grandpa’s Books

The Old Stove

The Sink/Grandma’s Hairbrush

The Settee

Family photos

The cabin shortly after purchase. It was a log fishing shack built in 1935, my great-grandparents and paternal grandmother bought it in 1941 for two payments of $675. Its official name was NoCaDo for the first two letters of my great-grandparents and grandma's first names, but most of the family always just called it "The Cabin."
My grandmother at the cabin in the 1940s, cleaning a pot. There was no true kitchen originally, just the wood-burning cast iron stove you can see the stovepipe for.
Circa 1940s, after the front patio was screened in and turned into the dining room.
Back deck of the cabin - date unknown but prior to 1970s addition of second bedroom and bathroom.
The cabin in 1959 with Lions Head in view (the mountain is now part of Staunton State Park).
Grandpa and my two uncles on a summer Cabin trip in 1959.
1959 - view looking SW off the back deck
1980s - Grandma admiring the new "wombat crossing" sign installed on the big front lodgepole pine, acquired on her and my grandfather's grand tour of New Zealand. It's still up there, as far as I know.
2000s - Grandma at the cabin on one of the family holiday trips, in her father's favorite rocking chair.
The carpet - the most memorable part of the cabin. Installed during the 1970s addition, my grandma always explained her choice of pattern as "you'd never see a single sin on that carpet" and you know, she was right.
2014 - view of Lions Head off the back deck. The wires are an elaborate contraption my grandmother invented to keep the squirrels away from her dearly loved bird feeder (a fruitless endeavor).

The Cabin

The Small Bed

The New Stove

The Big Bedroom/Patty Hearst’s Dresser

The Hoosier/Junk Corner

The Deck Door

The Shower Full of Spiders

The Antique Chair

The Antique Bedroom/Grandpa’s Books

The Old Stove

The Sink/Grandma’s Hairbrush

The Settee

My grandmother at the cabin in the 1940s, cleaning a pot. There was no true kitchen originally, just the wood-burning cast iron stove you can see the stovepipe for.

Circa 1940s, after the front patio was screened in and turned into the dining room.

Back deck of the cabin - date unknown but prior to 1970s addition of second bedroom and bathroom.

The cabin in 1959 with Lions Head in view (the mountain is now part of Staunton State Park).

Grandpa and my two uncles on a summer Cabin trip in 1959.

1959 - view looking SW off the back deck

1980s - Grandma admiring the new "wombat crossing" sign installed on the big front lodgepole pine, acquired on her and my grandfather's grand tour of New Zealand. It's still up there, as far as I know.

2000s - Grandma at the cabin on one of the family holiday trips, in her father's favorite rocking chair.

The carpet - the most memorable part of the cabin. Installed during the 1970s addition, my grandma always explained her choice of pattern as "you'd never see a single sin on that carpet" and you know, she was right.

2014 - view of Lions Head off the back deck. The wires are an elaborate contraption my grandmother invented to keep the squirrels away from her dearly loved bird feeder (a fruitless endeavor).