The photographs from this selection are available as a PDF only. Click here to download.
These pictures are from an exhibit of Durham photographs by Rick Doble at the Downtown Gallery, Durham (next to the Book Exchange at Five Points). The exhibit is from May 9 to June 6. On Sunday, May 9, there will be a reception from 2 to 5 P.M. to which everyone is invited.
My main subject, as a photographer, is Durham, the community in which I live. I like also to display and publish these images within the area because it is extremely satisfying to listen to a response from people who live here.
Durham turns, twists, dead ends and loops in ways very confusing to an outsider. Non-Durhamites will almost always get lost. This is indicative of Durham; it is a town that is constantly interesting, and reveals itself after time.
Durham is really three towns: West Durham, Durham, and East Durham. Each has a main street, a post office and a central business district. Each has its own distinctive character. These towns grew separately and then together, thus accounting for some of the confusion.
Because the city is built on a number of rolling hills there are, in places, breathtaking views of Victorian houses, 1900s textile mills, and modern shopping centers. And the light here is very clear, especially in the late afternoon. Then the intricate brick work of the warehouses and the tobacco factories shines in quiet grandeur.
And this is a town of trains. Durham has and still does ship its tobacco all over the world. At any time during the day or night you can hear the moan of a slow moving freight train as it slides along the curving tracks.
The masthead of the Durham Sun, the afternoon paper, states that Durham is “the friendly city of education and industry.” It’s true. It’s a town of working people and highly educated people, sophisticated but simple, a step back in time but also modern and growing, a city of many moods to those who take the time to become acquainted.
