Scaffolding
“Many times people worry about things that can kill them at eye level, but you're probably more likely to be destroyed by something above you. This is why the city has installed a sprawling network of temporary sidewalk shelters to protect pedestrians from falling objects. This is called scaffolding.”
- John Wilson
Random Photographs of 2021
Photographs made in 2021 that didn't necessarily have a place in a larger post or story. Images made with a digital SLR, iPhone, and various 35mm cameras.
Six Gun City
You have to know where to look in the Kentucky woods, but it’s up there in the hills—an abandoned town looking like the set of a John Wayne film. Was the place the forgotten theme park that the internet had touted it to be, though?
Flight and Former Front Yards
As Delta Airlines established a full-fledged hub at Cincinnati’s CVG airport, the facility eyed a runway extension. Ethan’s Glen wasn’t physically in the way, but life for residents was about to get even louder.
The Mantra of The Chong
An eclectic store that threatened to close for years… finally did. The camera I bought there broke, but it was the words of a friend that stuck with me.
20 Years Since Nitro: A Saturday Night at Swine City
My relationship with pro wrestling is complicated…I’m still very much a person trying to figure out what worlds I exist in—caught between the kinds of spaces where one feels they truly belong and where they don’t.
Dayton, Ohio’s Downtown Heliport (and Former Music Venue)
A unique piece of history and a relic of “urban renewal” in the heart of the Gem City.
LEGO: Kings Waffle
I don’t like Waffle House, I like a specific Waffle House. And I recreated it with LEGO.
Coming to Grips in a Ghost Town
There comes a point when your past begins to be seen solely as experience. The emotional weight isn’t entirely gone, but the punch it packs becomes weaker—the memories starting to carry new significance whether they were painful or proud.
Middletown, Ohio’s Towne Mall
I’ve written about several “dead malls” before, but I didn’t personally know Middletown’s.
Tyler and Jordan did, though.
Portrait of Walter Oka
Photographs made for a 91.7 WVXU/Cincinnati Public Radio story as the 20th anniversary of the September 11 Attacks approached.
Stricker’s Grove 2021
A tiny amusement park in the cornfields of Southwest Ohio captured on 35mm film.
The Starglow Drive-In Theatre
Even if you didn’t bask in the glow of the screen on that warm, July 1955 opening night—there’d be other chances. About three decades worth of opportunities to take in a film at Middletown, Ohio’s “all new, spacious” Starglow Drive-In Theatre.
Cincy on CineStill
Tried out some “motion picture film for still photographers” around the Queen City.
Downtown LA and MacArthur Park
I didn’t ride the Angels Flight funicular railway, but I did take the subway up to McArthur Park.
California City
Dotted by roads to nowhere, aircraft graveyards, and a dried up waterfall—California City was once envisioned to rival Los Angeles. As schemes continued well into the 21st Century, was it all too good to be true? A podcast inspired me to go have a look.