This Last Fall was shot over a period of twenty days beginning on October 12th, 2022.
While shooting a three block-long road, Roxford, mostly bombed out and abandoned with four ocupied homes left, i was on my ladder shooting a large apartment building that was taken over by vines and trees, suddenly i heard this ghoul adressing me. It was Shirelle’s home-made ghoul on Roxford Road in East Cleveland. Her entire property features her creations including a very large wolf.
The peak fall color normally occurs at Halloween in this town, although every day is Halloween in the gothic, forest-covered city, that forgot about trimming, cutting and maintaining its flora, but not Halloween.
“Creatures in the field.” That’s a good one. After all, this is East Cleveland. “Creatures in the field?” Yeah, and I’m one of ‘um, so i can give ya the insider’s view, i’ve been shooting here since 1978, living it, more than visiting it, and, on those grounds, i welcome your eyes and ears.
This is the last fall i will shoot this city. After a liver resection in February, 2022, followed by chemo, which ended just as the fall began. I really wanted to get back home to New York, but, realized this would be the last fall in this town, and out popped this book of ghetto splender in East Cleveland, one of the most distressed cities in America.