过去之窗
在过去的40年里, 迪金森 has witnessed the razing of entire commercial areas and blocks upon blocks of modest houses in Arlington. 大多数情况下，他们一个接一个地消失了.
图片来源:Tom 迪金森 ' 73In the 16 years since he and his wife Ann Tutundjian’76 bought their current home in Arlington, every house within sight of their own has been torn down and replaced, 街对面建起了一座新教堂.
迪金森解释说，阿灵顿的房地产, 位于国家首都旁边, is so valuable that “gorgeous old houses with old features and fixtures,“追求虚高的价格，卖家几乎无法抗拒. 开发商不断提高报价, 然后买房子, 拆除他们, 并在他们的地方建造狄金森所说的“巨型豪宅”.
去年2月, the average price of a single family detached home in Arlington passed the $1 million mark. Many of these new, larger houses sell for much 更多的—in the $2 to $3 million range.
Rather than chain himself to one of the mature trees in protest (tree canopies are another casualty of the city’s tear-down-and-rebuild mentality), 迪金森 responded to the situation with intelligence and artistry.
他抓起相机，开始记录正在发生的事情. 没有宏伟的计划，他只是继续拍摄.
图片来源:Tom 迪金森 ' 73从1980年开始, he systematically took pictures of individual Arlington houses before a bulldozer tore into them, 得到允许抢救了一些东西, then photographed what came next on the exact same lot: an expansive new home. 他记录了至少500个这种现象的例子, capturing what’s been lost in a visual narrative spanning decades. Last winter, he showed his photos in a public exhibit that attracted national media attention.
迪金森 already had an interest in 历史 when he came to 贝洛伊特, 但他的大学经历放大了这一点. A 贝洛伊特 Planner, he studied in Sweden and Germany and traveled in Europe for almost a full year. 当他回来时, he worked with legendary History Professor Bob Irrmann and Dean David Adams to transfer from physics into a major in U.S. 历史.
“There is a direct line between 贝洛伊特 and the things I enjoy doing now, and they’re attributable to the great teachers and experiences I had at the college,他说. “贝洛伊特真的激发了我对历史的热情.” 迪金森 adds that seeing the old Scoville Hall being demolished on campus during the 1973 summer term awakened his awareness and affinity for historic preservation.
现已从美国退役.S. 国防部, 迪金森 started his career as a civilian television producer overseeing training and documentary films for the U.S. 空军.
但他对历史的兴趣从未偏离太远.
一次, he and his boss at the 国防部 discovered that 空军 staff in a California storage facility were making space by pitching old films documenting historic moments, 比如约翰·F·肯尼迪总统. 肯尼迪在美国大学毕业典礼上致辞.S. 空军学院的毕业典礼，他最后一次这样的演讲. 作为他工作的一部分, 迪金森 intervened to save that and other archival footage from a dumpster, and he helped devise protocols to prevent that kind of culling from happening again.
即使是在贝洛伊特短暂的没有相机的时候, 迪金森 not only witnessed but also captured that demolition of the college’s old Scoville Hall. It was a project for Professor of Art Richard Olson’s filmmaking class, 这可能是唯一的历史记录.
Today, in Arlington, 迪金森 is still at it, documenting a dramatically changing city.
In 2016, he won a grant from an Arlington arts program that allowed him to share his before-and-after photos 更多的 broadly. 名为“过去之窗:阿灵顿”, Then and Now” it was displayed from November 2018 to January 2019 at the Westover Branch Library.
迪金森 framed his photographs with windows salvaged from the razed homes.
“My intention was to say ‘this is what’s happened over the 40 years I’ve been here,’他说. “It’s changed the character of this community from one that was diverse and affordable to upper middle and upper class. 所有使一个城市成为一个城市的东西——小小的购物区, 一个市区, 一个汽车, 迷你高尔夫球场. 一切都消失了.”
图片来源:Tom 迪金森 ' 73这些天, 迪金森 is also tackling a much 更多的 personal historic preservation project from a distance: He’s searching for a partner/investor(s) for the adaptive re-use and repurposing of the T.W. 狄金森父子烟草仓库. He inherited the three-story, cream brick building built in 1885 in Edgerton, Wis.1999年，他的父亲去世.
他和一群埃杰顿居民想象着13,000 square-foot warehouse becoming a local 历史 museum and event location, 这可能, 除此之外, tell the area’s unexpected agricultural story from when it was a tobacco-producing hub. 但迪金森说，他对所有的想法都持开放态度.
狄金森的动机不是为了赚钱, but rather to save this well-built old warehouse from an all-too-familiar fate he’s spent a lifetime documenting.
“I’d like my legacy to be that I was able to do something to transition that building to an enduring and productive second life,他说.
