One Last View Inside the Sunset Bowl
One lucky local photographer turned the rest of us into lucky photo viewers today by getting inside the mostly dismantled Sunset Bowl the other night.
We first found the collection of pictures inside the closed Sunset Bowl on MyBallard.com, which says everything sold at last month's auction will be out by Friday and that, as they say, will be that for the Sunset Bowl.
After we paged through the 14 pictures in the Sunset Flickr set Bruce Fleming posted, we were both touched by the tribute and awed by the beauty he saw in the torn-apart space. Who'da thunk that the view behind the lanes would look so awesome?
Of course, reporter that we are, we were also curious about who took the pictures, why, and how they were taken. We also wanted to know if Bruce had snagged a piece of The Sunset for himself or a favorite memory he could share with us.
Read our chat with our current favorite photographer after the jump.
Who are you?
I work as a production artist at a local ad agency, and like many graphic artists, I like to shoot photos in my spare time. I have a specific interest in documenting the life cycles of public institutions--which is a fancy was of saying I like to shoot in abandoned buildings (you'll see some others on my Flickr site).
How'd you get so lucky to get these shots?
Earlier this year, James Miller at Cafe Besalu let me put up a kind of "Vanishing Ballard" set in his wonderful bakery, including that Sunset Bowl exterior. I didn't intend it as an elegy--I didn't even call it "Vanishing Ballard." But time and again I found myself unable to remember what used to be at such-and-such a corner, and it made me kinda sad. That said, I stopped by the Sunset last night with every intention of shooting the outside. Specifically, I wanted to see if I could get a good angle on that "Bowling is Fun" doorway on the roof. Seeing that the chain-link was open, I went inside and ended up talking to Jerry, the maintenance guy for the past 12 years. Yes, he'll be out of a job, and a good one with bennies, as soon as the dismantling is done with. So will 50 other people. But he clearly loved the place, and was happy to let me wander around among the ruins.
Did you get a piece of The Sunset for yourself at the auction?
Jerry affirmed my suspicion that the auction was a real zoo. He said their bar glasses--no logo, no nothing--went for twice what they'd paid for them. So, as cool as it might have been, I did not get a sliver of the True Cross. I do, however, have an ancient box of red and white pocket billiard balls from the 211. That, more than The Sunset, was where I misspent my twenties and thirties.
[Eds: We did the same thing. God we miss the 211.]
Thank you so much for taking these amazing shots and sharing them with Seattle, Bruce.
