home town bmore
Baltimore, my home town, is a jumble of confoundingly contradictory currents and themes; one moment, an encounter with a person or place gives hope and inspiration - things are changing, the city is renewing - but around the next corner, it comes crashing down again, the hopelessness and nothingness of a city that often feels abandoned - both in body and spirit. When I was born in the early 70s, the population of Baltimore was nearly a million people. Now it is 600,000 and feels like a ghost town.
Baltimore contains the entire vastness of the human spectrum in close proximity: beautifully restored grand historic row houses sit two blocks from the massive city jail complex. Relentless block after block of boarded up vacants lie in the shadows of shiny new glass towers. Mansions stand a short walking distance from a world that feels forgotten. Most of these images were taken within a circle with a radius of approximately two miles. The contrasts are startling.
Baltimore has a vibrant and funky art scene, a rich culture and heritage, world-class educational, medical and business institutions. And Baltimore also has the highest per-capita homicide rate in the country, one in ten people addicted to heroin, and nearly 25 percent of the city population living in poverty. It is a city where consciousness and pride run deep, but that is mired in unsolvable problems that have been cycling for decade after decade.
This is an ongoing and developing work in progress. My hope is to be able to play some small role in helping to tell the story of what Baltimore is; to help show the shared humanity of the people of Baltimore, and to help show a truer picture of the city that transcends the standard media narratives and peoples’ preconceptions.
