If you follow my work, you know that I have a deep-seeded love of grungy backgrounds, old broken bricks, graffiti, and cool murals. Recently, however, I’ve been noticing that my lovely grungy Cincinnati is not nearly as grungy as it used to be. I suppose they call it progress, I call it “a real bummer”.
I love shooting in Over the Rhine ~ I just love that part of town. Sure, it used to just be scary, but it’s really not scary at all anymore. With all the urban development and the renaissance of Washington Park, The OTR is buzzing with positivity. It’s also buzzing with construction and while that’s great for urban redevelopment and all the positives that brings, it’s a bummer for me to go to one of my favorite spots and find that my beloved grunge is no longer there or have my shots littered with orange construction barrels.
So today’s post is basically a whine on my part and a homage to some of the graffiti, broken bricks, and murals that I once loved and are no longer there. The lovely college students in these portraits can know that there will be none after them to have the same backgrounds in their shots, even if I wanted to make it happen.
These murals ~ gone. Repainted. ::: sob ::::
My favorite “grungy gas station” ~ bulldozed. It’s an empty lot now.
These broken bricks and “duel” ~ turned into a new condo complex.
The yellow and blue building ~ cleaned up and repainted. Not JAZZED.
This amazing rubble….gone.
Nothing left but the electrical box now.
The green door…gone with the fab rubble in the shot above.
Rosco no longer sells everything for less.
Great color ~ gone! Tawk amongst yourselves.
This one below is still there….thank goodness, because who doesn’t love GHETTOPIA?
I shot in this very doorway last weekend ~ it’s now entirely different.
This mural has been gone for a year now ~ painted over with bright orange paint. It’s in a park….WHY paint it with ugly orange paint? WHY?
This cool house was an antique shop. It was antique too, and now it’s an empty lot.
This is my favorite mural of all time. It’s gone now and I’m crushed. I may never recover.
This is what it looks like now.
I have to be honest, I haven’t been back to this site below since we did these photos, so I don’t know if the cool graffiti is still there but I included it because I love it and I love the shot!
I hope you enjoyed the peek back at some of my favorite faces and places! Cole, Kieran, Peter, Jack, Sarah, Colin, Aaron, Ryan, and my daughter Mauri (who is a senior this year)…I hope you’re really enjoying your college days.
Have a grungy kind of a day (and I mean that in the best way!)
