Mannequin H.Q. on 2nd St. Closes forever. One last documentation.

Today I watched three Austin Downtown Alliance "Ambassadors" ride their bicycles on the sidewalk near Sixth St. and Congress Ave. when the lead "Ambassador" plowed into a homeless man who was walking with a drunken gait. I watched a young adult in a hopped up Dodge Challenger accelerate to show off, lose control of his car as the back end slid out, his car jumped the curb and slammed into a very resolute fire hydrant. The fire hydrant was unimpressed. I got screamed at by a psychotic street person on Fifth St. and thought, "What's new? But nothing prepared me for the shock of walking by one of the stores at which I have photographed various mannequins on an almost weekly schedule since the dawn of Covid and seeing the store mostly empty and being further emptied by the store's staff and owners. 

I stuck my head in the door and looked around. The mannequins seemed lost and perplexed. I asked the person I assumed was in charge if I could photograph the remnants of the store and she said, "Sure." 

There was a sign in the front window explaining that they'd lost their lease and that a national fashion brand was taking over the space. The departing tenants are moving a couple doors down on the street. The new place is much smaller and has only one window. The mannequins did not seem amused by the change. But who really likes change anyway?

Since I had one of my nine monochrome capable cameras with me I judged that this sad turn of events should, of course, be photographically covered in black and white. The Q2 was my camera of choice this morning. Small, light, powerful. 

The images have a lot of detail to them and are, in fact, an homage to the earlier work of famed photographer, Charlie Martini, who might have been named by John Szarkowski as one of the top 100,000 art photographers working in 1987. Or it may have been someone else. Who knows?

If I was the type of photographer who had been kitch-ily influenced by the PPofA I might entitled this series, "Apropos of Stillness: Nude fashion by the Colorado" .... but I'm not. I'll just refer to the small collection as: Morning of the disappearing mannequins, and be done with it. 

Click on the images. They are best seen large. And are full of detail. And angst. And petulance. And compassion ----- right...

Plate one: "Cheeky." 

Plate two: "Disarming." 

Plate 3: "The Muses."

Plate 4: "The Gentle Curve." 

Plate 5: "The End."