May 2026.
Fargo, North Dakota.

Egidio hosts this week’s challenge, Stuck in Place. He frames the assignment with a simple but clever prompt: “We will practice being ‘stuck in place.'” So, gather all your gear – lenses, tripod, lights, filters, cell phone, and whatever you use on your photo journey – and let’s get stuck in one place. Ideally, you should carve out thirty minutes to an hour to do this. Here is the one rule: you can do anything with your camera and lenses, but you should limit how far you move from where you are ‘stuck.’ You can move 10–15 steps in any direction to capture new images.” You can read his entire challenge post here.

• For my response to the challenge, I wanted to be “stuck” in a place that would let me focus on downtown Fargo. I considered doing street photography, but the 10–15‑step limitation ran counter to my goal of showing a slice of historic Fargo that feels stuck in place while modern buildings rise around it. So I built a simple framework for my approach:
• 1. Go to the top of the Third Avenue North parking ramp.
• 2. Take four sets of photos from different directions, staying 15 minutes or more at each area of the ramp.
• 3. Within the 10-15 step limit, create enough images from each direction to tell a complete story about Fargo’s history of buildings holding their ground.
• 4. Choose the strongest of the four sets and share only that one.

Image #1
Set #2, facing north, offered the strongest sense of old Fargo—historic buildings holding their ground amid the modern skyline. From the eighth floor of the ramp, my first frame felt like a find: the McCormick Building with its Sunny Brook mural. Built in 1919 for the McCormick Transfer Company, it once anchored a regional freight‑hauling operation. Directly behind it stands the former Bristol and Sweet Harness Company factory, a massive five-story production facility completed in 1920 to expand their manufacture of horse collars, saddles, and leather goods.

This image also reveals three more historic landmarks. The spire on the left belongs to St. Mary’s Cathedral, completed in 1899. The large water tower sits on the grounds of the Ford Building, a 1915 regional Ford Motor Company assembly plant now hidden behind newer construction. The steeple on the right marks the sanctuary of the First Lutheran Church, where the cornerstone was laid in 1919, and the grand sanctuary opened for services on Christmas Day, 1920. Together, these early‑20th‑century buildings anchor the downtown core, reminders of a Fargo that still holds its place amid the modern skyline.

Image #2
On Memorial Day, I photographed this set between about 6:45 and 7:00 PM, with the bright evening sun casting long shadows as it moved toward a 9:02 PM sunset. Looking straight down the side of the parking ramp, I noticed the potential for an abstract composition. The tree’s shadow cuts across the geometric grid of the sidewalk, creating a contrast between organic form and rigid structure. With the camera strap secured around my neck, I held the camera over the edge and made the shot. The original frame included the ramp wall in the foreground, soft at the top and ending at the natural ground beside the sidewalk. As much as I liked that effect, I cropped the image to a 16×9 ratio to keep the tree’s shadow intact, limiting the final composition to the area from the curb to the natural ground.

Image #3
Standing on the immaculate concrete of the Mercantile Parking Ramp at 3rd Avenue North, it’s striking how fresh this piece of Fargo’s modern downtown infrastructure really is. Completed in October 2020 to support the city center’s booming mix of businesses and residents, the structure acts as an engine for local commerce. By day, it serves as private, reserved parking for area professionals; after hours, it opens up to offer free parking for visitors enjoying downtown’s nightlife. Yet, stepping up to the staircase railing reveals a fascinating contrast—this brand-new vantage point places you face-to-face with a century of frozen time, looking out over industrial giants and historic spires that have stood proudly stuck in place since the horse-and-buggy era. From the ramp’s safety railing, a brand‑new ramp frames a century‑old steeple holding its ground.

Image #4
From the upper levels of the ramp, one of the most striking historic features in view is First Presbyterian Church, whose stone sanctuary stands just a few blocks away at 4th Avenue North and 3rd Street North. The congregation dates back to 1877, and the current Scottish Gothic–inspired building—now listed in the National Register of Historic Places—was completed in the late 1920s and dedicated in 1930, long before the parking ramps and modern offices rose around it. For several years, I worked in a building on the next block north as an IT Specialist for the Fargo school district. I passed by this beautiful church almost daily.

Image #5
Taking a few steps to the west, I found the makings of an industrial‑minimalist photograph. A support pillar, its anchor bolt, and the lightpost mounted above it lined up perfectly to block the sun, creating a sharp solar flare around the post’s base and edge. Beyond that pillar, the combined RDO Block 9 tower and Jasper Hotel rise as unmistakable markers of Fargo’s 21st‑century downtown renaissance.

That’s my response to Egidio’s Stuck in Place challenge. Thanks to him for nudging me outside instead of letting me raid my gallery again. >grin< It turned into a perfect evening in the sunshine, camera in hand, enjoying time with my Nikon Z7 II. I’ve posted this image set in a Flickr album here so pixel-peepers and metadata-divers can take a closer look.

Last week, Ritva’s colorful challenge had us all oohing and ahhing over the vibrant responses. Next week, Tina hosts the Lens‑Artists Challenge on May 30 at noon Eastern Time. Be sure to follow her here so you don’t miss her post.

If you’re sharing a Lens‑Artists Challenge response for the first time, welcome—we’d love to visit your post. To participate, publish your take on this week’s theme, link back to this page, and add the Lens‑Artists tag so others can discover your work. You’ll find more details on how the challenge works here.

John Steiner