in the late autumn of 1999, I moved from munising, in michigan's upper peninsula to the ghost copper mining village of calumet. calumet is located a few miles farther north of munising in the keweenaw peninsula. for the past five years I have lived and contested the elusive damn dame lady muse in the loft above the omphale art gallery in calumet.
     the history of calumet has been copper mining and processing. however, in the 1950's and 1960's, the keweenaw peninsula's copper mining industry began todecline. ore deposits had played out and vanished, or copper mining shafts had been extended too deep to make further mining profitable. a 1968 union strike ended unsuccessful, and when the calumet-hecla mining company closed down, significant mining in the calumet ceased in calumet.
     the old houses, stores, and mining buildings left behind have been a rich source of photographic opportunities for me. the old bowling alley and poolhall on fifth street has provided an extremely valuable source of photographs. this building was once owned and operated by socrates antioho. the creative calumet youths and local clientele cleverly nicknamed the establishment "saks fifth avenue." in the late 1970's, socrates died and his relatives closed the business leaving the building unattended. because of the lack of necessary maintenance and the punishing upper peninsula seasons in the "long white" the bowling alley and poolhall is in serious disrepair.
     for the past two years, the building has been a laboratory for my picture taking. I felt sure there was not a nook or cranny that I didn't know about. however, one day last fall I discovered the clothing left behind by a tenant in an upstairs closet. included in the apparel was a stunning black dress. this immediately reminded me of the hollies musical oldie, "long cool lady in a black dress."
     I have added red rose to compliment the artistic quality of the black dress for filming purposes. HOLD editor cait collins has accepted for publication some of the "black dress and red rose" photos. I sincerely hope that the reader will find a pic-photog to enjoy. - tks