Caloosahatchee Manuscripts

The Caloosahatchee Manuscripts were a gift from Florida Power & Light (FPL) to the city of Fort Myers, FL. A pair of bronze cylinders engraved with thousands of letters illuminate the front of the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center. Maryland sculptor Jim Sanborn created the Caloosahatchee Manuscripts to commemorate the transition of an old power plant from oil to natural gas. He’s the same man who created the “Kryptos” sculpture at CIA headquarters.

You can’t expect a photographer to ignore something that plays with light. Put it in front of an old building with Ionic columns and it’s like hunting on a baited field. I mentioned on my blog post yesterday that I didn’t do much shooting. The Caloosahatchee Manuscripts were definitely on my list. It was just a matter of deciding when to visit. The Downtown area is full of restaurants and bars. It’s the kind of place that’s busy on weekends. Checking the Art Center’s schedule also let me know that Monday had events. Tuesday seemed like a good bet.  Sure enough, the area was empty.

It’s a bit tight in there for shooting photos.  Cars line the edge of the sidewalk, as do palm trees. In some ways, it was interesting to see the letters light up the side of palm trees and cars. However, I rather like eliminating elements from photos and decided to ignore them. Although I took plenty of shots (including a very warped panorama), this shot was my favorite view.

Now if only the weather weren’t so damn humid that night.  This would be a pretty cool place to hang out if you had a nice breeze, low humidity and some cocktail service. I didn’t have any of that on the night I choose to shoot the Caloosahatchee Manuscripts, though.

Mental note:  bring beverages next time.