anna okafor. i photograph Kansas City because it keeps tearing itself down, and i keep a log.

Twelfth Street at dawn on color film, car haulers stacked with junked cars lining the curb while one blue sedan drives through low golden light. — twelfth street, 6:40 in the morning, the haulers were already loaded. 141 / 22A · keeper

Roll 141

the West Bottoms, before seven

color stock, most of it given to me expired. the Bottoms only look like this before the first shift arrives.

Kodak Safety Film

Roll 62

Vine Street, after hours

Tri-X pushed one stop because the club had one light and it was aimed at the trumpet.

A trumpet player in a heavy tweed jacket mid-phrase, head down over the horn, lit by one hard light from the side against a black room, black and white. — eyes shut, mid phrase, the one light doing all the work. 62 / 08A · keeper

Kodak Tri-X Pan

Roll 187

the West Side, monthly

i shoot the West Side once a month, same twelve corners, same lens. the ledger shows what the wrecking crews took between rolls.

Two older men seen from behind at a low guardrail on an empty street, the downtown Kansas City skyline standing beyond the cleared ground in front of them. — two men at the rail above the yards, i stood behind them ten minutes and they never turned around. 187 / 04A · keeper

Kodak Safety Film

the log

roll 1 was March 1998, a ruled ledger from my father's copy shop on Troost. it is on volume nine. every roll gets a number, every keeper gets a circle, and every print i sell carries its roll and frame number on the back, in pencil.

the three rolls above are the log opened to three pages. the rest stays in the basement.

roll log · vol. 9

141	the West Bottoms, before seven	5 kept
142	the Bottoms again, fog	0 kept
143	Southwest Blvd, la Posada	2 kept
144	the levee at flood stage	3 kept
145	Gene's sink, moving day	1 kept

a roll with nothing kept still gets a line.

the fountains, printed warm

Kansas City keeps two hundred fountains running. six of them are on fiber paper in the flat file, toned in selenium, printed until the negative says stop.

Warm-toned black and white print of the bronze hippocamp outside Kansas City's city hall, a winged sea horse rearing over three bronze fish. — the hippocamp outside City Hall, Twelfth Street.roll 129 / 06A

Warm-toned black and white print of a marble siren blowing a conch at the edge of a pool, a second figure standing in the spray behind her. — a siren with a conch, edge of the pool.roll 129 / 11A

Warm-toned black and white print of a marble group of Diana and cherubs beneath a waterfall wall. — Diana under the waterfall wall.roll 129 / 14A

Warm-toned black and white print of the Volker fountain, water running down a long curved flight of stone steps into a still basin. — the Volker waterfall, the whole flight running.roll 129 / 19A

Warm-toned black and white print of the Firefighters Fountain, a raised bronze figure over rings of arcing water in Penn Valley Park. — the Firefighters Fountain, Penn Valley Park.roll 130 / 02A

Warm-toned black and white print of the J.C. Nichols fountain, a rearing bronze horse in the spray with the Giralda tower standing behind it. — the J.C. Nichols fountain, the tower behind it.roll 130 / 08A

Print prices
8 x 10, fiber, selenium toned	$95
11 x 14, fiber, selenium toned	$160
16 x 20, fiber, selenium toned	$240
any frame on this page, same sizes	same prices

prints take three weeks and i'm not sorry, the wash alone is an hour.

every print gets its roll and frame number on the back, in pencil, from the ledger i started in 1998. if i ever reprint a frame, the ledger says so.

no editions. the log is the edition.

order a print: anna@halidekc.com

thursdays, the sink runs

the board goes out on the sidewalk when the chemistry is warm. side door, 1700 block of Summit Street, Kansas City.

develop plus a contact sheet is $14 a roll, 35mm or 120. pick up Friday after four, or i mail sheets on Saturdays for the cost of the stamp.

your negatives go back in dated sleeves with the roll number i logged them under, so if you ever want a print, we can both find the frame.

portrait sittings by appointment, $250 with one 8 x 10. you don't have to smile, and you don't have to hurry.

no weddings, the light at two in the afternoon is wrong and nobody lets you wait.