Mill Race Historical Village stands just north of Main on the west side of Griswold, next to Ford Field: a church, a school, an inn, a blacksmith shop, a gazebo, an interurban station and three houses, all in the styles that were common here before 1900. Anyone photographed among those buildings is standing in a frame that is a century and a half older than he is, and the temptation is to try to belong in it.
Don’t
Dressing toward the buildings turns a photograph into a re-enactment. The man ends up as a costumed figure in front of a nineteenth-century storefront, and nobody looking at that picture in twenty years will be able to tell what year it was taken, which sounds timeless and is actually just confusing.
The better contrast
Be clearly of now, and let the buildings be clearly of then. A plain dark suit, cut close to the man, against old clapboard reads as a real person in a real place on a real day.
What that means on the rack
Navy or charcoal, ordinary lapel, nothing that comments on itself, and fitted properly, which is the part that makes plain look deliberate rather than default. Half-canvassed, $300 to $500, holds that line all day.
Also for Northville: Ford Field Next Door, and the Outdoor Photograph. More on wedding suits, or plan your visit to our Oak Park showroom.
