These were taken on Davidson Street, just south of Washington Street. This area is mostly abandoned, but the viaduct running over Pogue's Run provides a makeshift community for some the homeless people in the area. This area is usually busy with all kinds of people, but for some reason, I only saw one person around on this day...
*All the images here may be enlarged by clicking on them...
**Some of the images here contain some profanity...
The Pour House is an advocacy group helping homeless individuals around Indianapolis with finding jobs, practical needs, and other support.
8 comments:
Man, with all of the broken down things you take pictures of, it's amazing anyone lives in this city at all. Depressing, but we need to look at ourselves in the mirror.
In all fairness, I am an entheusiastic fan of history and love shooting urban grit, so much of my work falls into that category.
You do bring up an excellent point; much of the city outside the square mile looks this way. It never ceases to amaze me how much of our city that is not right downtown gets neglected like it does.
I once received an email from a reader that asked me how I can call my blog an exploration of Indianapois when I leave out so much of its beauty. I politely replied that I find grit beautiful; but there is an simpler explaination; there are more of these types of places around than not...
There are a lot of factors for inner-city decay. I'm gonna blame Suburban Sprawl, since it's my number 1 pet peeve.
At least the inner city has some character. It's tough to find the beauty in an abandoned 1960's or 1970's era strip mall. And, of course, we only accelerated the pace at which we threw up forgettable places in the 1980's and 1990's. They are the next to be deserted and left to rot. So many wasted resources.
-End rant.
I'm in complete agreement; this cycle of picking up and moving out a few miles every few years is such a waste. In another few years when these suburban areas decay (like say follow the path of Eastgate or Eagledale), I won't be interested (understatement) in taking pictures of them ;)
A couple things, Matt ...
First, thanks again for allowing larger sizes with the click-ons. I'm appreciating your eye even more when I see such greater detail. Plus, I think it does more justice to your compositions for viewers to see it that way.
Second, I have to admit ... when I first visited your blog, I wondered about the high concentration on blight. But I quickly came to not only see the relevance of it all, but also understand your explanation for pursuing it -- as well as the art within. It's made me think, look deeper, "see" ... and contemplate exploring similar imagery.
These images do convey a beauty. I see it particularly in your captures/presentations in monotone, a vehicle that punctuates the grit. Compelling ... and telling.
You've hit on a very interesting niche. Keep on keepin' on.
That's not a very nice thing to say about Bush. I was hoping Dubya would be taking up residence there.
Joe: Thanks for the observations, you've articulate my aims quite well. My focus on blight can be attributed to all of the following: the desire to explore, to deliver places that are not normally seen within everyday life, a goal to understand the history of Indianapolis and how we got to how we are today, to open up the eyes of the people of Indianapolis to in addition to the great triumphs we've made in recent as a city, much work still has to be done, my photographic preference to urban grit and my desire to seek out such places, and to constantly improve my photographic skill. Wow! Major run-on sentence for sure...
Anonymous: I can just image W. setting up his new ranch right at the corner of Maryland and Davidson Street ;)
Whoa...urban grit isn't the same as decay or as blight. Most of what Matt captures is grit (rr trax and urban alleys) and decay (overpasses on the Belt Line and inner-city rail infrastructure).
True enough, he catches some blight, but I think one's eye for blight is substantially influenced by one's own suburban/urban perspective. A vacant or underutilized urban structure isn't necessarily "blighted" any more than an empty storefront in a suburban strip mall.
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