Exile

  Last night the thought of taking the train into center city entered my mind. It's been 20 months since I ventured downtown but I had no intentions of leaving 30th Street Station once I arrived. My plan was to take photos from the trains window and once at the station have a cup of coffee before I took the 35 minute long train trip back home to Chestnut Hill.

  As I awoke this morning I still wasn't sure if this is something that I wanted to do because after all I now find the city boring, uninspiring, and frankly not worth photographing anymore. One's minds eye and memory retention of what was can be a dangerous thing for a photographer who lived and took photos in a much more interesting time. But even not passing under center city in the train and staying within the train station was enough to convince me to take the trip. After five and a half years of living in exile I've grown accustomed to staying away. Maybe one day I'll make the trip because I aways liked taking photos out of train and subway car windows but today is not the day.