The Miracle on 34th Street
Baltimore, MD
Thanksgiving 1996
A college assignment sparks a life-long love…
Two images blended in the dark room to form one print.
It was November 1996. My Intro to Photography final project was due in days and I had nothing. Then a visit to Baltimore for Thanksgiving gave me an opportunity to try my hands at street photography. Still, what story of Baltimore could I tell with just a few days?
My grandma told me about a Christmas tradition in her neighborhood, Hampden, called “Miracle on 34th Street",” borrowing from the old classic Christmas movie of the same name.
The good people living on the 800 Block of West 34th Street throw a block party each season. Not just any block party mind you but one which requires extra electricity to be brought in to supply the tens of thousands of Christmas lights that are stung up and down the street. These lights take weeks, even months to install.
The event draws people from all over the area and it sounded like just the kind of thing I would love to document for my class project.
It’s not only that this neighborhood puts on a huge light show every year, they roll out the welcome mat too.
All kinds of treats are brought out. Cookies. Hot cider. Cookies. Coffee. Cookies. Hot chocolate. Oh I almost forgot… cookies.
There’s a real Christmas Spirit in the air and everyone is made to feel welcome.
For those for whom Christmas is a religious holiday, some of the families display iconic symbols of the Christian faith, such as this manger scene.
The Miracle on 34th Street is such a big deal in Baltimore, the local media comes out to cover the opening night of this annual event.
But not every kid that wants to be on TV can follow the directions of the newscaster.
Because I was not expecting to photograph at night, I was not prepared with the best film for night photography and instead I only had Ilford HP5 Plus 400 speed film to work with.
I shot a roll and a half of the stuff for this event. To my surprise, the Ilford HP5 400 turned out to be incredibly versatile.
In order to capture this event, I needed to set my shutter speed for 1/60th and even 1/30th of a second. Any movement of my body at this speed would cause the film to capture a blurry image - which I tried to avoid at all costs.
Nevertheless, I thought the results of this film in these low light conditions were amazing.
I hear this event is so important, the City of Baltimore arranges for a special flight from the North Pole to bring Santa to come hear what kids want for Christmas.
For this project I got an A. I ended up with a B+ in the class. My only regret was that I waited so long to take the class. Had I taken it in high school as originally planned, I might have majored in the subject in college. Even so, I was not going to leave school without taking a course in photography and to this day it remains the one class I use the most in my life. That, and maybe algebra ;-)
