Documentary Photo class in Charlottesville, VA (Festival of the Photograph)

NEW WEBSITE

New website, very much in the early stages of construction.

http://www.robfranklinphoto.com


Better viewing platform over there and this blog will soon be changed around quite a bit also. While that site (at this point) is going to let the photographs speak for themselves with no captions or background stories, this blog will most likely become more text and description.

This blog will also soon be losing the personal entries and become slightly more professional looking.

Another Heavenly Mountain update.

Since my last post about this place last Fall, I have come back a few more times to explore and take a few pictures. Most of the pictures are from a visit yesterday to the "East campus" which was my first time inside any of the those buildings. I snapped a few shots for fun and have posted them here. I think I need to go back with a few lights and do this place justice!

The Dining Hall

The Main Hotel / Facility

More fun at the West Campus over Winter.

Me???

A few shots from Christmas break N&R freelance work

Over the Christmas break I helped out at the News & Record for a week or so for a little spending money. Here are a few shots from the short job.

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Garbage Truck Accident- Spot News

These two lived directly across the street from the accident. Very nice people, notice the man's Beavis & Butthead tattoo on his right arm.

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PH High School Invitational

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UNC vs Rutgers
I apologize for the watermarks, Its a slight deterrent for online "thief's".

view from apartment...

Living on top of a mountain allows for some spectacular views of the weather. At my location I'm looking east towards Winston-Salem and Greensboro, NC.....on a clear day I can see Pilot Mountain (Just north of Winston and Greensboro) and the skyline of Charlotte (something like 90 miles away!)

While the photo isn't nearly as amazing as seeing it in life, this was the view last night from just outside my door as I was returning home from class.


I guess it may help to show what the valley looks like without an ocean of clouds covering it all up, so here is a shot from a few weeks ago(before the leaves all fell off the trees)....obviously I took a few steps back and the balcony is now in the foreground.

updated post- back by popular demand!

**I've decided to put the bio/explanation back on this post. I've done a lot of research on this place and it only makes sense that I explain how I've gotten to this point. Many rumors about this place and Transcendental Meditation have really made it notorious and disliked by locals. Fears of "cult activity", ignorance of other cultures and subcultures, and curiosity have resulted in lots rumors and myths. I've even heard some locals that believe that psychotic people from mental hospital are shipped here.

**Soon I'd like to officially document the rest of this place.



Its been a while since the last post. I am now going to Appalachian State University and living in Boone, North Carolina. After moving into my apartment thats literally sitting on top of a mountain about 7 miles away from school, I started noticing some really strange things going on around me in the gated community that I am living in. Long story short...it turns out the small community is a former resort that housed "The Spiritual Center of America" for a religious movement called Transcendental Mediation (henceforth referred to as "TM" ). I won't get into all of the details about TM, but the community known as "Heavenly Mountain Resort" was a college for students to learn about and practice TM, along with many practitioners who built multi-million dollar homes on the mountain. The resort was split into two sections, mens campus and womens campus. I am currently living in one of the lofts that housed the mens campus students. After several years as "The Spiritual Center of America" the owner of the place who designed and built the facility (reportedly asked to build it by the Maharishi himself) broke ties with the group and shut down the center. Currently the resort is broken into two sections, the former men's campus is now mostly abandoned and former student housing is being rented out to ASU students and others. While the former women's campus in still heavily TM, although students and the college are no longer operating and are even rented out in Summer months for TAO retreats.

After investigating a lot of the area without a camera, I went around earlier this week with Jared to document the main areas that are now abandoned...

This is the balcony of the Dining Hall (locating beside my apartment).

The stairs and wrap-around porch of the old temple.

On top of the temple, overlooking Blue Ridge Mountains.

Some of the Indian architecture.

Inside the abandoned Temple.

This is photo I got off of a TM website of a similar temple in use.

Outside the temple, former classroom buildings in the foreground.

A very similar structure from TM website.

FOOTBALL! Pro and Prep

This is from the final week of the Greensboro News & Record Summer Internship. The high school football stuff was my last assignment from last Saturday.

Panthers vs Colts

Two 1-hour scrimmages from the HS Football Jamboree