Relics 2016: Brick Time Machine
A photograph by Emile Frey
Emile Frey is not pulling out his camera as much these days. Instead, the St. Francisville-based engineer, who dabbles in portraiture, landscape and architectural shots, and astrophotography, is researching historical observations of Jupiter, hearing about a portrait subject’s childhood, and losing himself in a concert crowd. In other words, he’s experiencing more of the world and informing the photos he does take along the way.
“I was at the Grand Canyon when the sun was setting, standing with literally three or four hundred other people,” said Frey. “I wish I would have filmed the audio. You could hear the shutters popping. I thought, I probably won’t come back soon. It’s my last night here. I’m sitting here looking through the lens with all these other cats. This happens every night. So I stopped. I took my picture, put my camera up, and watched. I’m so grateful because I remember it so much more.”
Frey was immediately captivated by St. Mary’s Chapel, the abandoned Gothic Revival chapel off Angola Road, as he drove by one day. But he knew a better angle was waiting beyond the “No Trespassing” signs; and when a friend invited him along on a music video shoot, Frey grabbed his camera.
Once inside, he fawned over the bricks and fractured plaster, the architectural detail, the acoustics, and the “perceivable history.”
“There are infinite perspectives I could have taken of that church,” said Frey. “Infinite angles and stories that could be told.”
He hopes to walk the line between living and creating. “You have to be very intentional with the balance between the two,” said Frey. “I was in New Orleans the other day and my mom wanted me to take a picture right then. I said ‘No, I’m enjoying it!’”
View more of Emile Frey's work at emilefrey.com.