Squared Shitless
May 8th, 2010
The following is a combination of fiction and computer generated imagery, sent back through time by a supercomputer. You’ve been warned.
Christmas morning had passed and we were an hour away from the Day’s end. All the presents had been unwrapped and the paper strewn about the living room. All was quiet, save for we three intrepid explorers: the best present was yet to come.
As we ascended the first of 35 flights of stairs, my heart is pounding out of my chest. The smallest of noises had my cohorts and I stopping dead in our tracks and listening for what could be signs of our impending doom: someone trying to find us. We are uhhh, unauthorized visitors. The wind tore at the fabric wrapping the building and at our hands, there was no staying warm. We could hear the drone of equipment above us, not knowing if there was someone supervising it. We didn’t care, the adrenaline coursing through our veins reminding us that stealth and personal safety were just as important as phenomenal photography. “Life before limb” I thought, except Life in this case was telling my fear to sit down and be quiet — now is not the time.
Sledding In The Shadow of Abandonment
March 4th, 2010
Cincinnati is full of abandonments, most of the time you drive right past them without knowing their history. Many people take the presence of these historical treasures for granted, some call them blight, but their significance in Cincinnati’s history remains strong. They are an ever present reminder of Cincinnati’s past, and in some cases, a beacon for Cincinnati’s future; but more than likely they’re just a playground for explorers like me.
Nota Bene: you can click these and see the full resolution versions on My Flickr, or view a slideshow of all 4 photos.
Standing quitely behind a snow-blind sledder in Mt. Echo Park, the Crosley Building was once home of WLW radio (better known today as 700WLW.) The radio tye-in doesn’t stop there though, previously Crosley Radio Corporation used the building to manufacture low-cost table top radios until 1942 when World War II operations within the Crosley Building demanded that manufacturing operations be moved elsewhere.
Carnivolution 2009
January 3rd, 2010
The KOI Burners couldn’t have picked a better venue than the Mockbee for Carnivolution, a heady mix of sensual and exhilarating performance (including Dante’s Gypsy Circus) , outrageous costumes, classic midway games and fantastmagorical persons of all shapes and sizes. KOI (Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana) Burners, a local arts group and appendage of the larger Burning Man collective located a few blocks away from the Mockbee building at 2008 Freeman Avenue hand built carnival games and much more. The Burners slaved for weeks to perfect their costumes for the carnival and burnt the midnight oil polishing the experience of the Midway for Carnivolution. The C.M. Mockbee Building, the crumbling industrial former home of a hardware company, refuses the be relegated to abandonment like so many others of it’s kind. For Carnivolution it is reborn a third time as a venue for experiencing the fantastic.
Nota Bene: you can click these and see the full resolution versions on My Flickr, or view a slideshow of all 55 photos.
Arlequin
Now she’s out of the straight jacket
Roxanne in Hookah Lounge Wonderland
Dante’s Gypsy Circus
The Fred Astaire of Practice Poi
High Class Bearded Lady
Feathers (Oh how I love feathers)
Want More?
Nota Bene: you can click these and see the full resolution versions on My Flickr, or view a slideshow of all 55 photos.
Or simply watch the slideshow in your browser now:
Nonsense and scribbles scratched on the wall in crayon, pencil, dirt. Names and geometric patterns drilled into the wood work. Floors covered in hay. Mary, Richard, Seth, Sue. I know there were children here before this house became, like so many in rural farming areas in America, storage for hay. Dated February 7th, 1974, the Centre Daily Times (or as I like to call it the Centre Daily Misprint) contains a piece “Weighing the risk Of an impeachment” doing exactly that in reference to a post-watergate Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon. This is a fantastic parcel of land, and the house is still quite solid save for a crumbling foundation in one corner and a mushy floor on the back porch. There is another house just up the private road. Perhaps they just moved, electing to use their prior residence as storage for hay?
Nota Bene: you can click these and see the full resolution versions on My Flickr, or view a Slideshow of all 32 photos.
Sue’s Handiwork
Beautiful Decay
I love you
Seth’s Scribbles
Comedy/Tragedy
Weighing The Risk Of An Impeachment – 3 photos
View all 32 photos.
Location: near State College, PA
I went home to Montoursville, Pennsylvania for the Thanksgiving holiday. This was my first time home since my father’s death, and I had my doubts about how well I was going to take seeing the house again. Thankfully I was wrong — the work my Mom did is absolutely amazing. As far as the upstairs bathroom and master bedroom are concerned, I might as well have been coming home to boutique hotel. With a 50 gallon bath tub, no less.
View a slide show of all 16 photos
The bathroom is warm and inviting and features radiant floor heating, towel warmer, fifty gallon cast-iron bath tub, and airy glass shower. I’d say the icing on the cake is the HDTV on the swing arm above the bath tub.
The bedroom is the perfect place to crash after a wonderful day, or just to take a nap. My father always said that my mother was a fantastic napper. Our first dog, Boris, would run up the stairs to the bedroom if you asked him “Where’s Mommy?!” Why? because that’s usually where she was!
I love you Mom, you did a wonderful job… and you’re not even done yet!
A year is a long time, and in the space of that year I feel like I’ve really grown as a photographer. Oddly enough, this meant not only bettering my skills behind the camera, but facing fears. I was afraid to explore, because I didn’t want to go to jail. In actual fact, the Cincinnati Police Department seems to have a lot better things to do with their time. I was uneasy around people. Viewing the world through the viewfinder, the “real” world seems to fall away, and with it the anxiety. All that’s left is the image, the concentrated essence of the moment, and off we go…
Nota Bene: you can click these and see the full resolution versions on My Flickr, or view a Slideshow of all 37 photos.
You, You’re Awesome at the Southgate House
You, You’re Awesome at Northside Tavern
Abandoned Loch #5, Bowling Green, KY
Arsclan Jesus Respawns 9 Mug Shots
Sunset over Louisville,KY Rail Bridge
Unammed Boy, Sedamsville, Cincinnati, OH
Impromptu Portraits
Abandoned Hudepohl Brewery
Life in Downtown Cincinnati
Urban Decay in South Fairmont
Life as we know it:
And that’s just the beginning, trust me. I’ve come this far in a year, and the next year will be even more of the same. More shots, more exploring, more photowalks with those near and dear in Goettaville, Cincinnati, OH. I look forward to getting into my visual groove, feeling the world fall away, and creating wonderful pictures.
Much Love,
–Matt
Chemotherapy with my Father
October 23rd, 2008
For those of you who didn’t know, my father was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer back in May this year. I came home for a long weekend after I found the news, courtesy of a very understanding boss. It wasn’t long enough, and it was all so new that nothing was really different. His mind was still sharp as he hadn’t started chemo, and he as still doing things around the house himself. Move forward till now, he’s quiet, his logic is questionable (and my father is a very, very intelligent man) and his one concern is fighting it and staying alive. Now I’m home for two weeks, and spending lots of time with dad. The sad part is that he doesn’t want to go do anything, but he didn’t before he got sick. He lives all inside his own head, and it’s been that way for a long time. I can tell he’s only angry and scared not for the future but because of the loss of control he has over his own life, and the loss of energy.
Tuesday of this week, I accompanied him and my mother to Geisinger hospital in Danville, PA. These pictures are of a man with the stubbornness of 1000 mules and who does not know how to fail at anything. I am his son, these are my pictures.
View the entire set on Flickr.
Don’t Mess With My Camera, Bro
May 13th, 2008
Jeremy Brooks has a great writeup entitled “If You Put That Picture On The Internet I’ll Call My Lawyer.” I can only hope to handle a similar situation in the same way. Although, there are parts of the city I want to photograph but will not venture there until I have my Ohio concealed firearm carry permit. Better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.