Generated by All in One SEO v4.9.2, this is an llms.txt file, used by LLMs to index the site. # Real Still Pictures of the Lost Source ## Sitemaps - [XML Sitemap](https://realstill.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website. ## Posts - [BUTTE](https://realstill.com/2025/) - [Site Map](https://realstill.com/2025/) - four departmennts - books, epigrams, essays, multi-form, thoudands of pictures of the lost source, disapperaing america, sttel mills, cities, neighborhoods - [Debunking](https://realstill.com/2025/) - With regards to hand-made Slovenian sausage, the first big step in the multi-day process is to trim the fat off hundreds of pounds of pork, that, if not done, no one would eat. - [Funding 2](https://realstill.com/2025/) - Occasionally, when mixing, accidentally, with the people i avoid, i will be rudely asked, always by the usual gossiping, out-of-it privleged trolls, "How do you pay for all this?" Especially if they find out that most everyone gets pictures, and it begins and ends there. Handing out prints to my "subjects" including, even, fine art shots - [American badlands](https://realstill.com/2025/) - Check Charles Cushman's documentation of the slums of Chicago 50 years ago. Without dating the shots, there isn't a clue to the time or era that the photographs documents, and perhaps, with black and white renditions, this is much more the case. Cushman shot with Kodachrome, state of the art until around 1980. Three shots - [Can a Website be Art](https://realstill.com/2025/) - TwoShoes at the Mike Boros Cafe, in the Buckeye neighborhood, once the largest Hungariam settlement outside of Hungary, itself. The shot was taken in 1989, nine years before The Bar finallly closed after about a hundred years of serving cheap drinks in an ethnic dive bar. Begnning in the late 1970s, the neighborhood became Black, - [Distinct Geography](https://realstill.com/2025/) - Coming Soon.... - [Random](https://realstill.com/2025/) - Reality, the world, left even a little uncontrolled, allows for the unexpexcted, as well as, the same old thing. Basic reality, by nature, is always a gamble. In 1995, while shooting a formation at 3:00 a.m., in the eastern Montana Badlands, with Ektar 25 color film, in a 90 minute exposure, a thunderstorm crept in from - [Incomparable](https://realstill.com/2025/) - One thing about the badlands, its erosion is the quickest of all landscapes. Material on the ground is shaped by water and wind continually, and always changes. Comparison are odious. I wrote that for one of the Sullage books and it simply means, if you've done your job right, than there's a point where comparisons aren't worth - [Timeless](https://realstill.com/2025/) - John Taverner discusses the art of being timeless. - [Funding](https://realstill.com/2025/) - You see what i mean. Do you want to read what i mean? ## Pages - [Real Still](https://realstill.com/) - Real Still - Pictures of the lost source - [Artist Statement 2](https://realstill.com/artist-statement-2/) - Head of Sinbad, Pictograph in San Rafael Swell, Utah (1998) The pictograph was captured using a long time exposure with moonlight as its source of illumination, and, because it was film, having to account for reciprocity, the shot required one hour. Set completely still on a tripod, staring, the camera and lens is a great concentrator. - [Artist Statement](https://realstill.com/artist-statement/) - Photography is machine art, built to manufacture an original slide or negative, designed to be a master for multiple and even unlimited copies, all looking the same as the one before. Digital produces multiple originals, or, no original at all. The art business, realizing this, has their answer in limited edition prints, limiting availability and audience, - [Opere Est Veritate](https://realstill.com/opere-est-veritate/) - philosophy of work and truth, working to get truth, making is the best form of thinking, debunking, thinking with pictures - [Statement of Purpose](https://realstill.com/statement-of-intent/) - Think, Victoreen Geiger Counter Company, Cleveland (2010) In one word, the IMG, can state RealStill's intent - THINK, and READ as well. The Intellectual Graffiti Movement that began in Cleveland in 1967, is still an active force in reminding locals of matters that might be forgotten. Read, Abandoned Docks of the Upson Nut & Bolt Company, (2009) Whatabouit, Detroit - [Better Than Art](https://realstill.com/better-than-art/) - Factory Butte, Caineville Badlands, Utah (2000) The formation was shot at 3:00 a.m. on PHR 25 film, using simple moonlight, in a one hour long exposure, to provide illumination. During these long exposures, the light source moves as the earth, moon and sun spin and orbit, the bounced sunlight off the moon is in constant “slow” movement, - [BUTTE](https://realstill.com/butte/) - [Pictures Quest](https://realstill.com/pictures-quest/) - ​ TECHNICAL Regardless, your ideas of nature, spirituality and highly unusual landscapes, i bring technical equipment, not camping gear, beverages, food or any device beyond my camera, into this environment, because the sole intention is a mission of pictures. I don’t lay on the earth and gaze at the stars in a bad land. I work and - [Site Map](https://realstill.com/site-map-works/) - RealStill is pictures of the lost source. Accessed only through participation/experience, it's a website for eveyone and no one. There are four departments, most easilly accessed with the menu in the left corner of the site's pages. BOOKS, long-form, often over many years. https://realstill.com/books ESSAYS, short-form, from a few pages to almost book-length. https://realstill.com/works EPIGRAMS, one - [deadication](https://realstill.com/deadication/) - It's really that simple, similar to "Do unto others..." It's simple enough, that you can live it fully. Obviously the world is loaded with other options. Just saying, while, proving, that it's possible. Johnnie Kilbane - [Purpose/Deadication](https://realstill.com/sitemap/) - Site Map Target Graphic It's a man's output during his life, in an existential quest for pictures. What did you expect, an artist portfolio site? Self-promotion? Sales? The goal is to shoot the picture so that it embeds in the viewer's mind, because i went to the source. This site is simple, it's easy to make - [Simple Morality](https://realstill.com/simple-morality/) - In Billings Montana (1989) in the South Side neighborhood, literally, "across the tracks" from downtown is completely working-class, whites and Native American Indian mostly, with remntals going to a mix of low-rung blue-collar folks, drunks and the usual sloopies from the poor part of town. One of the city's refineries is located here along the Yellowstone - [no wonder](https://realstill.com/head-in-ass/) - [BWB Beef](https://realstill.com/bwb-beef/) - I speak of and shoot pollution, mostly beyond the terrible neurological and pulmonary health risks, as if my real concern is keeping my mind, soul and principles unsullied, even while experiencing the very negative health consequences of working with and around chemicals. Perhaps certain things can’t be helped since they are real. Today’s adulterant, far beyond - [The Cinci Shoot](https://realstill.com/the-cinci-shoot/) - 2004 was a hell of a year. Serious gentrification had begun one year earlier on my block in Brooklyn, as well as, being the starting point for deep care for my family, that they needed during their slides towards death. I began a long process of juggling shoots with family care and trying to survive - [The Seltzer](https://realstill.com/seltzer-links/) - History of seltzer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrJrq4-Jn4Y http://www.seltzertopia.com/r-i-p-eli-the-seltzer-man-my-eulogy/ View Article https://www.nytimes.com/1979/09/26/archives/seltzer-a-renaissance-in-fizz-seltzer-renaissance-still.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlEMU84uGuk http://www.seltzertopia.com/my-interview-with-the-original-gimme-seltzer/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6xDt2RwR7Y&feature=youtu.be From a New Yorker article in the seventies. "...story about the revival, on a small-scale, of the door-to-door seltzer delivery business in Manhattan. Describes an average work day of Marty the seltzer man, and tells about what his one-truck business involves. Marty, 34, is - [the C-1 Blast Furnace,](https://realstill.com/ltv-steel-c-1-blast-furnace-1989/) - C-1 blast furnace and blower engine house in operation in 1989. This was originally built by Jones & Laughlin Steel which was bought by LTV Steel in 1984, along with Republic Steel which had a huge mill across the Cuyahoga River. The furnace was imploded and the other structures demolished by 2004 in yet another wave of - [OUT AND UNDER](https://realstill.com/out-under/) - Excerpt chapter from Sullage I, a book of aphorisms, written on the run, one of which was the Jersey Run and tunnels and cuts i ran across: OUT AND UNDER Crossing is a going over, but I cross by going under. A fall is never pretty, but it does afford the opportunity - [Montana industry](https://realstill.com/montana-industry/) - https://www.montanaliving.com/blogs/montana-matters-news-about-montana/116655365-colstrip-montana-a-town-built-on-coal https://www.trainsim.com/vbts/showthread.php?266124-Grain-Extra-from-Great-Falls-to-Ft-Benton-MT-(1960) http://www.greatnorthernfan.com/?page_id=3 https://billingsgazette.com/news/local/laurel-refinery-lights-up-its-new-addition-for-holiday/article_e1db327d-5833-5bd8-9252-0e16a134cbc5.html https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/modern-day-ghost-town/article_df7274dc-6e94-11df-9df9-001cc4c03286.html http://www.belgrade-news.com/features/cementing-a-century/article_9eab853c-c796-11df-a3f3-001cc4c03286.html http://www.bigskywords.com/montana-blog/a-history-of-black-eagle blob:https://player.pbs.org/26da3623-775b-45f9-873c-05f4e63bcacd https://www.taunyafagan.c https://www.montanaliving.com/blogs/montana-matters-news-about-montana/116655365-colstrip-montana-a-town-built-on-coal https://www.trainsim.com/vbts/showthread.php?266124-Grain-Extra-from-Great-Falls-to-Ft-Benton-MT-(1960) http://www.greatnorthernfan.com/?page_id=3 https://billingsgazette.com/news/local/laurel-refinery-lights-up-its-new-addition-for-holiday/article_e1db327d-5833-5bd8-9252-0e16a134cbc5.html https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/modern-day-ghost-town/article_df7274dc-6e94-11df-9df9-001cc4c03286.html http://www.belgrade-news.com/features/cementing-a-century/article_9eab853c-c796-11df-a3f3-001cc4c03286.html http://www.bigskywords.com/montana-blog/a-history-of-black-eagle blob:https://player.pbs.org/26da3623-775b-45f9-873c-05f4e63bcacd https://www.taunyafagan.c - [Montana bars](https://realstill.com/montana-bars/) - https://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/retrospective-montanas-small-town-bars/collection_de812ee6-675e-5b61-b482-51c735ad3343.html#19 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_Moderne https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhEzERt89mQ https://mtstandard.com/news/local/love-at-the-m-m-couple-marries-in-butte-bar/article_ea9aac15-1d51-5eed-b6dd-f5fee5fb017d.html http://www.butteamerica.com/mandm.htm https://mtstandard.com/news/local/passing-of-an-icon-butte-remembers-longtime-m-m-waitress/article_318ffa95-cbca-5766-ac87-4b37bf78e24f.html https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMWF1R_Club_13_Butte_MT https://billingsgazette.com/business/historic-minnesota-avenue-bar-sells-and-developers-plan-to-turn-it-into-apartments/article_92991d15-ffe8-50c3-942e-d98acb735e24.html Other historic Montana bars: https://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/montana-taverns-hang-on-to-history-as-wooden-bars-and-backbars-jump-in-value/article_ae20a3fb-80ea-52c4-88ac-4929a1a4ced7.html https://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/retrospective-montanas-small-town-bars/collection_de812ee6-675e-5b61-b482-51c735ad3343.html#19 https://billingsgazette.com/business/for-sale-a-tiny-eastern-montana-towns-century-old-bar-and-its-famous-bean-soup/article_15d59f35-e287-5ecb-a93f-4df2382ad3f6.html http://alexismadams.com/pdf/Ingomar.pdf https://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/retrospective-montanas-small-town-bars/collection_de812ee6-675e-5b61-b482-51c735ad3343.html https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/montana/articles/the-10-best-bars-in-butte/ https://bigskyjournal.com/dining-out-the-old-saloon/ https://www.thomasleephoto.com/Authentic-Places/The-Jersey-Lilly/1/thumbs - [The Predictive Moment](https://realstill.com/the-predictive-moment/) - RealStill is loaded with what has vanished, but it has nothing to do with saving or preservation, particularly, redevelopment. The preservation ended at the capture by camera. Intent? My pictures are not there to illustrate preservation ideas or schemes. Another way of putting it, for instance, a mill complex falls, and RealStill's pictures say - unless you're - [Cameo Links](https://realstill.com/cameo-links/) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZXSsq9-vks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6pLsbIhgTE Fish Story Same Fish In Queens Petshop For 41 Years - [A City's Abandoned Homes Through Time](https://realstill.com/a-citys-abandoned-homes-through-time/) - Check Charles Cushman's documentation of the slums of Chicago 50 years ago. Without dating the shots, there isn't a clue to the time or era that the photographs documents, and perhaps, with black and white renditions, this is much more the case. Cushman shot with Kodachrome, state of the art until around 1980. Three shots below are Kodachromes - [Going Under project](https://realstill.com/going-under-project/) - “Man is a bridge not an end.” "There is wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness. And there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and sore out of them again and become invisible in the sunny spaces." - Herman Melville A certified Going Under - [Home](https://realstill.com/home/) ## Slideshow - [BLAST FURNACE MOON](https://realstill.com/slideshow/books/blast-furnace-moon-2/) - [ICE](https://realstill.com/slideshow/books/ice/) - [BUTTE](https://realstill.com/slideshow/books/butte/) - [FEAST](https://realstill.com/slideshow/books/slideshow-feastfeast/) - [the-deuce-1985-1995](https://realstill.com/slideshow/books/the-deuce-1986-1994/) - [windows](https://realstill.com/slideshow/books/windows/) - [HONEST SCRAP (1980-2024)](https://realstill.com/slideshow/books/honest-scrap-1980-2024/) - [THE BAR](https://realstill.com/slideshow/books/the-bar/) - [BRISTLECONE PINE](https://realstill.com/slideshow/books/bristlecone-pine/) - [TWILIGHT/FALL TOWN MIX (1988-2023)](https://realstill.com/slideshow/books/twilight-fall-town-mix-1988-2023/) - [FALL TOWN (2003-2024)](https://realstill.com/slideshow/books/fall-town-2003-2024/) - [TWILIGHT TOWN (1988-2003)](https://realstill.com/slideshow/books/twilight-town-1988-2003/) - [BQ](https://realstill.com/slideshow/books/bq/) - B/Q is a view on the Brooklyn/Queens border formed by Newtown Creek, the most polluted and toxic stream in New York with waste disposal, sewage, gas and power plants. - [DIRTY OLD TOWN](https://realstill.com/slideshow/books/dirty-old-town/) - [STEEL](https://realstill.com/slideshow/books/steel/) - [this-bad-land](https://realstill.com/slideshow/books/this-bad-land/) - [WNM](https://realstill.com/slideshow/books/wnm/) - [RNC 2016](https://realstill.com/slideshow/books/rnc-2016/) - [BLAST FURNACE MOON](https://realstill.com/slideshow/books/blast-furnace-moon/) - [BAD WATER BOTTOM](https://realstill.com/slideshow/books/bad-water-bottom/) - [BLUESTONE FALLS](https://realstill.com/slideshow/books/bluestone-falls/) - [NIGHT FALLS (2001-2021)](https://realstill.com/slideshow/books/night-falls-2001-2021/) - [jersey-run-1995-2007](https://realstill.com/slideshow/books/jersey-run-1995-2007/) ## Introduction Text - [FALL TOWN (2003-2024)](https://realstill.com/intro/books/fall-town-2003-2024/) - PREFACE TO FALL TOWN It’s more archive than book, in fact, it’s an archive in book form. My preference is a tight edit, no fat, and leaden picks, but Fall Town is fat with pictures, and it’s because it’s probably more of an archive. If I have enough time, in the future, I’ll put a - [STEEL](https://realstill.com/intro/books/xxzxz/) - (The introduction was written in 2008). The shooting slowed after 2011, but did continue and is ongoing. Since then the mills in Warren, Mingo juction, Steubenville, Weirton and Ashland have ceased and their blast furnaces demolished. More years of work will eventually be added to this existing book.) Steel. Photography. What more needs to be - [BLAST FURNACE MOON](https://realstill.com/intro/%introduction%/blast-furnace-moon/) - We’re pretty familiar with the tradition of naming full moons, such as the wolf moon or strawberry moon. I got a moon, and it applies to any month when the moon is full, it’s known as the blast furnace moon. Moonlit furnaces and snow are bad signs for the steel business, since they so clearly - [ICE](https://realstill.com/intro/books/ice/) - Dying at home, pulchritudinous mixture of splendor and desolation. And now that i got that out of the way: It's not just the ice, but the dynamo that generated it. It's a type of localized weather/atmospheric phenomenon endemic to specific geographies. Like Santa Anna Winds, the Ninas, or Tornado Alley, Lake Effect is peculiar to its - [FEAST](https://realstill.com/intro/%introduction%/feast/) - I didn’t photograph the Feast to “document culture.” That’s grant language. I photographed it because I lived inside it. The Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel has been a Williamsburg summer fact since 1874. The Sunday lifts—the days Williamsburg tightens up around Havemeyer Street and turns muscle into ceremony—begin in 1903. Those dates matter, - [Butte](https://realstill.com/intro/books/butte/) - A proper written introduction is in the works. This town deserves it. In the meantime i'll state, i love this town. Not much of an intro, but the city of Butte is so damn interesting beyond its fascinating history as an industrial boom town set on the continental divide in Montana. Probably more characters per capita - [DIRTY OLD TOWN](https://realstill.com/intro/books/dirty-old-town/) - Like, Fall Town, this book is more archive, than book, particularly with so many shots. One day i'll do a dynamite coffee table edit of under 200 images. It's the same introduction for all three books of the trilogy. First of all, the book, as seen here, is fat with pictures. An actual "coffee table book" - [this-bad-land](https://realstill.com/intro/books/this-bad-land/) - This Bad Land is a view on a distinct geography. Mostly we know the eroded sod tables of the Badlands National Park in South Dakota, but there is a large varied collection of American badlands, all of which are also preserved in parks and reserves. Even Badlands National Park itself has a much broader collection - [jersey-run-intro](https://realstill.com/intro/books/jersey-run-intro/) - I never walked, when i could run. JERSEY RUN (1995-2006) is a trenchant large-scale and thorough frame on the industrial corridor of North Jersey centered along the New Jersey Turnpike. In that flat open expanse of mud called the Meadowlands, from the garbage hills of the upper Hackensack and the industrial valley of the Passaic, into - [CHICAGO GANG SIGNS](https://realstill.com/intro/essays/chicago-gang-signs/) - When I first arrived in Chicago the first thing I wanted to do was document gang culture and gangs. Not only because they had reached such a level of sophistication breadth and depth, but there was no doubt it was going to develop into one of the biggest social problems in the history of the city, - [NIGHT FALLS (2001-2021)](https://realstill.com/intro/books/night-falls-2001-2021/) - INTRODUCTION The work of waterfalls illuminated by full moons began in 1998, when I photographed Calf Creek Falls in Utah under a full moon with Ektar 25 film in a 90 minute time exposure, deciding thatt, although it's bounced sunlight, it didn't look that way, and the light source would move during the shot. Confirming this, after printing samples, - [TWILIGHT/FALL TOWN MIX (1988-2023)](https://realstill.com/intro/books/twilight-fall-town-mix-1988-2023/) - This book, from 1988 to 2023, is a mix of Twilight Town and Fall Town, that are the last two books in a trilogy about this city, which is purposely anonymous, representing the dozens of cities and towns of the Rust Belt. It's also what a coffee table photography book edit might look like, instead of - [TWILIGHT TOWN (1988-2003)](https://realstill.com/intro/books/twilight-town-1988-2003/) - This book, from 1988 to 2023, is a mix of Twilight Town and Fall Town. Twilight Town, that are the last two books in a trilogy about this city, which is purposely anonymous, representing the dozens of cities and towns of the Rust Belt. The Intro's Intro It's same introduction for all three books of - [the-deuce-introduction](https://realstill.com/intro/books/the-deuce-introduction/) - "...It was Saturday night and the jungle was bright And the game was stalking its prey The code was crime in the neon line And the weak were doomed to pay..." - Verse from the toast, The Fall INTRODUCTION Last days of THE DEUCE (1988-1994) peeks into the old capitol of American street culture. That - [bq-intro](https://realstill.com/intro/books/bq-intro/) - In 1978 i began shooting industry and accompanying toxic waste sites. Generally speaking, I’ve shot the some of the most forgotten landscapes within American cities. Through much of this my base of operations has been in north Brooklyn, which, conveniently, borders one of these noxious desolate factory zones that lie in the midst of populous urban ## Books - [DIRTY OLD TOWN (1977-1988)](https://realstill.com/books/dirty-old-town-1977-1988/) - The first Rust Belt book, photographs of a Rust Belt city from 1977-1988 with disappearing steel mills, factories, homes, bars, churches, living while dying. - [THE DEUCE (1985-1995)](https://realstill.com/books/the-deuce-1986-1994/) - Photographs of the Deuce, 42nd Street, Times Square, Grand Luncheonette, Peepland, Playland, whores, drug dealers, pimps, runaways, bums, addicts, Selwyn, Lyri. Explore RealStill.com’s photo archive of “The Deuce,” capturing Times Square’s raw and vanished 42nd Street in the years before its corporate cleanup. - [JUST THIS LAST FALL, 2022](https://realstill.com/books/just-this-last-fall-2024/) - Just This Last Fall, photographs of cleveland in autumn, 2022 with homes, factories, rail lines, many abandoned, overgrown with trees and plants. A Rust Belt arboretum. - [BUTTE](https://realstill.com/books/butte/) - Buttte. I love this city. That's all I have to say, but, just to let you know it's a view on a remarkable industrial city. That was the biggest producer of copper in the world at one time. The mines and the head frames still exist, along with the neighborhoods that surround them. All the - [THIS BAD LAND](https://realstill.com/books/this-bad-land/) - All American badlands shot with long exposures using only moonlight featuring bisti badlands, goblin valley, south dakota, hell's half acre, mono lake, macosika. - [JERSEY RUN (1995-2007)](https://realstill.com/books/jersey-run-1995-2007/) - Industrial New Jersey, in the Meadowlands - Jersey City, Newark, Elizabeth, Kearney, Perth Amboy connected by the New Jersey Turnpike, rail lines, airports - [B/Q (1986-2013)](https://realstill.com/books/bq-1986-2013/) - B/Q is a view on Newtown Creek, most toxic, polluted stream in New York, lined with sewage, power, waste and recycling plants, glue factories and refineries. - [FEAST](https://realstill.com/books/feast/) - [ICE](https://realstill.com/books/ice/) - [THE BAR](https://realstill.com/books/the-bar/) - Cleveland, Buckeye Road Hungarian dive bar, old man bar, industrial neighborhoods, urban bar, drinking, family, neighborhood joint in Cleveland. - [ART & GENTRIFICATION](https://realstill.com/books/art-gentrification/) - Experienced intelligent satire with pictures and text about the gentrification of Williamsburg that was fueled by artists resulting in forced displacement of poor people by rich people who are artist - [FALL TOWN (2003-2024)](https://realstill.com/books/fall-town-2003-2024/) - The Rust Belt book, photographs of a Rust Belt city from 1977-1988 with disappearing steel mills, factories, homes, bars, churches, living while dying. - [BLUESTONE FALLS](https://realstill.com/books/bluestone-falls/) - Photographs of waterfalls formed by bluestone, sandstone and shale formations in cleveland, Ohio. - [WINDOWS (1984-2024)](https://realstill.com/books/windows-1984-2024/) - Neighborhood window displays in Chicago, Brooklyn, Cleveland, Manhattan and the Bronx. Photographs of the window displays in homes, bars, and shops. - [HONEST SCRAP (1980-2024)](https://realstill.com/books/honest-scrap-1980-2024/) - Scrappers in cleveland search for metals, sell them. - [BRISTLECONE PINE](https://realstill.com/books/bristlecone-pine/) - Photographs of bristlecone pine shot with moon light in long exposures in the White Mountains, Cedar Bluffs, Utah, Bryce Canyon, Utah, Patriarch Grove, California - [NIGHT FALLS (2001-2021)](https://realstill.com/books/night-falls-2001-2021/) - Photographs of waterfalls, with a full moon illumination - calf creek falls, dingman's falls, silver thread falls, kaaterskil falls, ricketts glen falls, croton - [TWILIGHT/FALL TOWN MIX (1988-2023)](https://realstill.com/books/twilight-fall-town-mix-1988-2023/) - The Rust Belt book, photographs of a Rust Belt city from 1977-1988 with disappearing steel mills, factories, homes, bars, churches, living while dying. - [TWILIGHT TOWN (1988-2003)](https://realstill.com/books/twilight-town-1988-2003/) - This book, from 1988 to 2023, is a mix of Twilight Town and Fall Town, that are the last two books in a trilogy about this city, which is purposely anonymous, representing the dozens of cities and towns of the Rust Belt. It's also what a coffee table photography book edit might look like, instead - [STEEL (1995-2023)](https://realstill.com/books/steel-1995-2023/) - American steel mills photographed in operation and abandoned, steel towns and cities like Weirton, Wheeling Pitt, LTV, AK Steel, U S Steel, Cliffs, Rouge, huletts - [WILLIAMSBURG NATIONAL MONUMENT (1985-1990)](https://realstill.com/books/williamsburg-national-monument-1985-1990/) - Photographic essay on Williamsburg Brooklyn before gentrification in the 1980s along the waterfront on Kent Street with abandoned factories, railyards - [SULLAGE II (1996-2002)](https://realstill.com/books/sullage-ii-1996-2002/) - EPIGRAMS TO DIE FOR AND LIVE BY APHORISMS, PROVERBS, PROBES, BEEFS SHOTS, or philosophy by aphorisms and pictures on the run of life. Philosophy and Photography - [SULLAGE I (1989-1996)](https://realstill.com/books/sullage-i-1989-1996/) - EPIGRAMS TO DIE FOR AND LIVE BY APHORISMS, PROVERBS, PROBES, BEEFS SHOTS, or philosophy by aphorisms and pictures on the run of life. Philosophy and Photography - [THE JUNKYARDS (1998-2020)](https://realstill.com/books/the-junkyards-1998-2020/) - Coming soon, a twenty year long view of the Iron Triangle section of Queens. Already half-gone, it's the last big section of the city that had gone untamed by gentrification and changing times, until the destruction of 23 acres of shops began with emminent domain in 2013. ## Epigrams - [RARE BRONX CHURCH](https://realstill.com/epigrams/rare-bronx-church/) - It's rare to see a structure abandoned today in the booming Bronx, let alone a structure that has been shut down since the late 1990s. The Pilgrim United Church of Christ building at 1800 Grand Concourse was built in 1892. - [JACK'S BAR](https://realstill.com/epigrams/jacks-bar/) - Jack's Musical Bar was a popular music venue at 6608 cedar ave. that enjoyed the height of its popularity in the 1950s. Hungarian immigrant Jack Kowit opened the business at cedar tavern in 1933. the bar was located just several blocks north of where he lived. it was the first tavern on cedar avenue to - [139TH STREET TIRE SHOP](https://realstill.com/epigrams/139th-street-tire-shop/) - The 139th Street Tire Shop in Mott Haven between East 138th Street and 137th on Morris Avenue. - [EC BALLS 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/ec-balls-2/) - Rexford Road, East Cleveland. - [9/11/2001 EVENING](https://realstill.com/epigrams/9-11-2001-evening/) - From my roof, the evening the Towers fell, at twilight. That's a west/southwest wind, and, when winds turned out of the northwest, that distinct smell and burn could be seen and sensed quite well. - [MURRAY SPACE SHOE COMPANY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/murray-space-shoe-company/) - The window display of the Murray Space Shoe Company in Long Island City, Queens in 1986. https://www.nytimes.com/1978/12/06/archives/alan-e-murray-at-84-invented-space-shoes.html http://www.murrayspaceshoe.co/ https://www.thedailybeast.com/did-steve-mcqueen-really-wear-those-geeky-murray-space-shoes - [OSAMA IN HOOD ON HALOWEEN](https://realstill.com/epigrams/osama-in-hood-on-haloween/) - Osama is a work by Byron Kelly who has constructed dozens of these caricatures in his basement. accompanied by a local neighborhood resident, the model, built in 2007, prefigured the Isis beheadings years later. - [THE OLDER CATHOLICISM 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-older-catholicism-2/) - St. Goerge, a Lithuanian-American church in the St. Clair/Superior neighborhood, closed in 2009, and had a great collection of older Catholic reilgious art, before St. John in the sixtie began the modernization of church practices. The Lithuanian inscription is simply who donated the work. - [GHETTO TINY HOUSE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/ghetto-tiny-house/) - At the time of this shooting, the home was occupied by a young scrapper/handyman/laborer, providing more than affordable housing. - [ICABOD FLEWELLEN MURAL](https://realstill.com/epigrams/icabod-flewellen-mural/) - Mr. Flewellen's second home for his African-Americam Museum which was the Princetone Exchange Building, a struture that the early phome companies used initially. The mural, depicting Black heroes, common for a long time, was an unsusual bent back in the day, not to mention Icabod Flewellen's peerless dedication and complete commitment to this history, proven - [LINCOLN FREES AND ARMS THE SLAVES](https://realstill.com/epigrams/lincoln-frees-and-arms-the-slaves/) - Soldiers' & Sailors' Monumnt, Lincoln Panel - Lincoln breaks the chains of slavery while he arms the former slaves. - [T & L CHRSTIAN BOOKSTORE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/t-l-chrstian-bookstore/) - T & L Christian Bookstore, Euclid Ave., East Cleveland. - [EAST 140TH STREET, MOTT HAVEN, BRONX, U.S.A.](https://realstill.com/epigrams/east-140th-street-mott-haven-bronx-u-s-a/) - Beginning in 1889 William O'Gorman built a row of 49 single family rental homes on the southside of E. 149th St.. Today 23 of these remain in an unbroken role in our part of the east, Mott haven historic District. the Bronx became a borough of New York City in 1898, when is the population - [SCRAPPERS TRUCK 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/scrappers-truck-2/) - Hand-written plea to not scrap his truck. - [UPPER MANHATTAN FALL](https://realstill.com/epigrams/upper-manhattan-fall/) - From Fordham Hill in the Bronx, the Cloisters is fog-bound on a snowy day in Inwood in the Harlem River Valley. Rockefeller bought Fort Tryon from another industrialist, Billings, and installed a mideval art collection and landscaped park overlooking the Hudson, and, coincidentally, the Bronx. He would donate it all to the city. Inwood, the neighborhood lying - [SLOVENIAN NATIONAL HOME, SISTERS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/slovenian-national-home-sisters/) - Sisters, born and raised, in the church and neighborhood, in the lobby of the social hall, auditorium and bowling alley known as NASH. - [BRONX CUISINE DEAL, MOTT HAVEN](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-cuine-dealmott-haven/) - On Jackson Avenue in Mott Haven, there's a good deal to be had for breakfast. - [ARCHITECTURAL MOONING](https://realstill.com/epigrams/architectural-mooning/) - Elk's Lodge #93 on Clinton Avenue was the 32 room mansion of beer baron, Franz Kastner, the owner of the Phoenix Brewery. In July, 2005, traveling west, i detoured in Newark to grab a shot of the old mansion since it semed alsmost sure to go. It was bought for one dollar from the Elk's in - [WILLET'S POINT MAP](https://realstill.com/epigrams/willets-point-map/) - An aerial detailing the arrival of gentrifcation to Willet's Point, and you're not gonna believe who will be negatively effected by all this? The working-class, of couse. - [NATIONAL BIRD OF THE FORGOTTEN TRIANGLE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/national-bird-of-the-forgotten-trianagle/) - The abandoned homes and factories of the forgotten triangle are the perfect perch for the American Vulture. - [MUDHOUSE MANSION](https://realstill.com/epigrams/mudhouse-mansion/) - The Mudhouse Mnasion in central Ohio shot with mostly a full moon, except for a mercury vapor sodium lamp in the back, in June, 2006. The site is notorious for number of arrests and prosecutions for tresspassing on the property which the owner guards. That's why i parked my car with NY plates a half - [MURDER BURGER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/murder-burger/) - The Bronx home of the notorious murder burger = a half-pound of beef mixed with breadcrumbs, eggs, Worcestershire sauce and accent cooked on a skillet and served on a roll with relish, onions and secret sauces – for $3 - ya can't go wrong, or can you? Some have said all along, that the American - [EDDIE STANDBERRY, GUITARIST](https://realstill.com/epigrams/eddie-stanberry-guitarist/) - eddie standberry, renownwed gitarist, cleveland, east side, played drums, piano and was a great guitarist of blues, jass and r & b, parties, bars, club - [HOME-MADE ADVERTISING](https://realstill.com/epigrams/home-made-advertising/) - [SWEET STREET](https://realstill.com/epigrams/sweet-street/) - [SOHO CAR WASH](https://realstill.com/epigrams/soho-car-wash/) - Houston Street, 1986 - [BRONX CHURCH](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-church/) - St. Ann's church in Mott Haven is the oldest chiurch in the Bronx and was built by the the son of Gouverneur Morris and his wife, Ann. 78 people are buried on the church grounds including vaults underneath the floorboards of the church. The Morris family owned much of the Bronx, having acquired the - [1950 BUICK 88 GRILLE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/1950-buick-88-grille/) - In 1950, for some reason, Buick changed the grille on 88s. It was discontinued the next year after complaints from insurance companies - it was too complicated, and had nine individual columns, no to mention, even though they sold double the units in 1950, customers didn’t like the grille, which became known as the biggest, - [BUZZARD](https://realstill.com/epigrams/buzzard-on-a-chimney/) - The big ironic thing to do in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio on March 15 is to go to the Hinckley Reservation of Metroparks Wildside, the city, and view the return of the buzzards. In fact, with the locals called buzzards, or vultures. There's actually no need to travel out to Hinckley, because many committees of - [A CITY'S PLEA](https://realstill.com/epigrams/a-citys-plea/) - Although in a city that was the sixth largest in the country, and, is now 55th, this would be a fitting plea, but, in fact, property owners where the homes no longer exist have to cut the grass once a month. If you don't the city will, and it will cost more than 600 bucks. Although in a city that was the sixth largest in the country, and, is now 55th, this would be a fitting plea, but, in fact, property owners where the homes no longer exist have to cut the grass once a month. If you don't the city will, and it will cost more than 600 bucks. city do not cut - [WORLD-CLASS ASSHOLE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/world-class-asshole/) - Often called, the world's richest man, as well as the smartest, but you wouldn't know that after he joined with the Leader. Spending $25 million in Wisconsin to convince them to vote for a leader-approved judge, the most successful man in the world, completely failed. What will go down in history with the Wisconsin affair - [BRONX THEATRE SCANDAL](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-theatre-scandal/) - The Bronx in the 1920s was bursting with Jews, until, by 1960, they made up half the borough. There was a Yiddish theatre on Prospect Ave. that had quite the scandal. Although this is a picture of the old Bronx Art Theatre on Southern Blvd., it captures the reaction to that theatrical and real-life event. The Bronx in the 1920s was bursting with Jews, until, by 1960, they made up half the borough. There was a Yiddish theatre on Prospect Ave. that had quite the scandal. Although this is a picture of the old Bronx Art Theatre on Southern Blvd., it captures the reaction to that theatrical and real-life event. Prospect Theatre Bronx, scandal, lesbian - [TOWERS OF LIGHT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/towers-of-light/) - The annual light dispaly for 9/11 as seen from Snake Hill in the Jersey Meadowlands with Jersry City and its Hudson Generating Staion along a bend of the Hackensack River world trade center towers of light The annual light dispaly for 9/11 as seen from Snake Hill in the Jersey Meadowlands with Jersry City and its Hudson Generating Staion along a bend of the Hackensack River - # - [EAST 138TH STREET WINDOW 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/east-138th-street-window-1/) - On East 138th Street in Mott Haven a tenant leans out his window on January First, 2025. - [BRONX BOOM BOX](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-boom-box/) - On White Plains Rd. in Williamabridge every day during the summer booming box is here. - [WOOLWORTH TOMB](https://realstill.com/epigrams/woolworth-tomb/) - In Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, The grand Woolworth mausoleum of the Woolworth family is flanked by whimsical sphinx sculptures.Like the Woolworth Building in Manhattan, it's the tycoon's signature knack for mixing monumental and the mischievous. - [JUDAS LOOKS TO US](https://realstill.com/epigrams/judas-looks-to-us/) - A detail in one of the stained glass panels at St. Ann's church in Mott Haven, where one of the disciples looks directly at the viewer. Perhaps, you are all capable. - [EAST 138TH STRRET WINDOW 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/east-138th-strret-window-2/) - On East 138th Street, Mott Haven, a tenant checks me out. - [RARE BRONX HOME 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/rare-bronx-home-1/) - The Southington mansion in the Mount Hope section of the Tremont neighborhood, remains from a time before the big building booms in the 1920s and today. In fact, when built, it had unobstructed views over the east Bronx and the Bronx River below. It's nothing but congestion today. - [COLSTRIP](https://realstill.com/epigrams/colstrip/) - [PATRIOT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/patriot/) - The Junkyards, Willets Point, Queens, 2019 - In 2013 the city sold 23 acres of land, in the IronTrangle section of Queens, for a single dollar, to build a mall/retail complex - in the age of Amazon. There were 23 acres of shops, salvage yards and iron works and many workers - one third - [BRONX SHELTER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-shelter/) - On a hot Sunday, July afternoon, Joseph takes a break in the home-made oasis at 139th Street Tires in Mott Haven. - [HOUSE OF CROSSES](https://realstill.com/epigrams/house-of-crosses/) - Near west side of Chicago, 1981, 1541 West Chestnut Street - Edwin Szewczyk's home. The worker's cottage was built in 1879 by a Polish immigrant whose son eventually took over the home. By the seventies the neighborhood was in a bad transitional state as crime and gangs proliferated. Essentially turning the home inside out - the - [YONKERS HUDSON VIEW 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/yonkers-hudson-view-1/) - [ON THE EVE OF HYPER-GENTRIFICATION](https://realstill.com/epigrams/on-the-eve-of-hyper-gentrification/) - Al and TwoShoes at the Grand Luncheonette in 1994, the year 42nd Street began its flip, and got gentrified. Under Mr. Guliani, the template and birth of large-scale gentrification would unfold, and a large part of it was crime and safety. If the Deuce could be tamed by Gullianis's new policies, then any neighborhood could be flipped. And that's - [JERSEY BILLBOARD INFRASTRUCTURE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/jersey-billboard-infrastructure/) - Out in the Jersey Meadowlands, by Snake Hill, in Seacaucus, where the Turnpike merges and splits into North and South Spurs, over the CSX train yards, is a mass of timbers that holds up billboards. - [FREE BREAD](https://realstill.com/epigrams/free-bread/) - In 2004, on Superior Avenue in East Cleveland, the most basic needs are being met. That year the area had the highest poverty rate of all major cities, and has consistently been in the top ten. - [COWBOY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/cowboy/) - Cowboy relaxing on his front porch on East 83rd Street. Although thoroughly urban, his choice of western attire, associated with horses and riding was absolutely authentic. Like many, now older folks in his neighborhood, Cowboy came from the the rural south, a long time ago and grew up amongst livestock, and was particularly fond of horses...which - [BROOKLYN SCRAPPER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/brooklyn-scrapper/) - In 2003 a scrapper heads down South 6th Street in Williamsburg. The tenements and shops would soon be gone, replaced by new buildings like the one out of frame to the right. - [BRONX DEVOTION](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-devotion/) - [BRONX DEAL](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-deal/) - On Jackson Avenue in Mott Haven, a grocery store. - [BLANCHE SHOWS HER WEDDING PICTURES](https://realstill.com/epigrams/blanche-shows-her-wedding-pictures/) - Blanche Grimshaw, my next door neighbor (i also moved into their old apartment next door) shows her wedding pictures in her bedroom on Union Avenue, Brooklyn. - [BILLINGS SIMPLE TRUTHS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/billings-simple-truths/) - That's about it. - [BASICS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/basics/) - A home made sign in Billings Montana, 1989, on the south side, an industrial neighborhood "on the other side of the railroad tracks" from downtown and Billings proper, and whose southern border is the Yelowstone River. No other caption necessary. - [ARE INDIANS GOOD FOR BUSINESS? 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/are-indians-good-for-business-2/) - Not any more. (Chicago, 1982) But the historical connection to tobacco remains. - [ANIMAL EXPLOITATION IN THE JUNKYARDS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/animal-exploitation-in-the-junkyards/) - Stuffed animal on muffler pole & worker, Iron trinagle, Queems. - [A TREE GROWS IN A WASTELAND OF HOUSE MULCH](https://realstill.com/epigrams/a-tree-grows-in-a-wasteland-of-house-mulch/) - The tree was trimmed to allow clearance for the debris which consists entirely of wooden houses that were demolished, shredded and dumped on East 83rd Street in the Forgotten Triangle section of Cleveland. House mulch is a rich mixture of the worlds's best woods, many that are unavailable today, as used in housing construction in the city's - [A SUPERHERO FOR SUPERHEROES](https://realstill.com/epigrams/a-superhero-for-superheroes/) - With good old cinema replaced by big budget action and cartoon films, i find nothing interesting, although, they say, real movies can be found on streaming services these days. But the day i ran into the Superhero for all Superheroes i became a huge fan of this crap, and found out that humor is - [A PLANT GROWS IN QUEENS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/a-plant-grows-in-queens/) - A plant finds a way in a chemical marsh in the Junkyards, Queens. - [UPPER MANHATTAN LANDSCAPE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/upper-manhattan-landscape/) - From Fordham Hill in the Bronx, the Cloisters is fog-bound on a snowy day in Inwood in the Harlem River Valley. Rockefeller bought Fort Tryon from another industrialist, Billings, and installed a mideval art collection and landscaped park overlooking the Hudson, and, coincidentally, the Bronx. He would donate it all to the city. Inwood, the neighborhood lying - [YONKERS TINY HOMES](https://realstill.com/epigrams/yonkers-tiny-homes/) - If you are familiar with immigrant neighborhoods then tiny houses are nothing new. Yonkers is one of the top five cities in America for homes with the smallest square footage. But don't be fooled by the statistics because the city has a great bunch of mansions, particularly Victorian ones, such as in the Park Hill neighborhood. - [YONKERS NODINE HILL 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/yonkers-nodine-hill-2/) - Looking up Ash Street from Linden Avenue in an area of Yonkers that is like the old Lower East Side of Manhattan, but with hills. - [YONKERS NODINE HILL](https://realstill.com/epigrams/yonkers-nodine-hill/) - Yonkers is known as the "City of Seven Hills" including Park, Nodine, Ridge, Cross, Locust, Glen, and Church Hills. Nodine Hill is known for its large water tank and being the most densely populated and dangerous place in Westchester County. It's nothing more than the classic melting pot neighborhood, and jumping off point for immigrants, today, largely Mexican. - [YONKERS MOQUETE ROW](https://realstill.com/epigrams/yonkers-moquete-row/) - In the background is part of the old Alexander Smith carpet mill, an industry that vput Yonkers on the map and help make it the third largest city in the state. Across from the mill a dense section of brick tenements and rowhoeses were built between 1881 and 1886. The housing is still occupied and - [YONKERS HUDSON VIEW 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/yonkers-hudson-view-2/) - [YONKERS EXOTICA](https://realstill.com/epigrams/yonkers-exotica/) - A man suns himself at Untemeyer Gardens. - [YONKERS CHURCH & HOMES](https://realstill.com/epigrams/yonkers-church-homes/) - In Yonkers Sacred Heart Church sits on top of one of the city's many hills. - [YONKERS BIG HOUSE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/yonkers-big-house/) - On Woodworth Avenue in Yonkers is a large rowhouse originally built as hospital. - [YANKEES TRIBUTE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/yankees-tribute/) - This window was at Valentino's delicatessen on 204th St. in the Bronx. I took it during the 8, when my best friend, Ray, and myself were touring the bars and the surroundings. It was a haven for the Irish, particularly the immigrants, legal and no,t who came for work. At that time there were 18 Irish bars on - [WRITTEN IN STONE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/written-in-stone/) - An interest rate written in stone, before the mobile economy. Tatra is a mountain range between Slovakia and Poland. The bank sits on Woodhill Road which would be a Hungarian epicenter between 1900 and 1975, with contingents from fellow bordering countries to Hungary. The Buckeye Road neighborhood of Cleveland was the largest concentration of Hungarians outside of - [WORKIN ON IT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/workin-on-it/) - What can i say? - [WINTER ICE CREAM CONES](https://realstill.com/epigrams/winter-ice-cream-cones/) - Outside the old Pierre's Ice Cream Plant on Carnegie Avenue. - [WINO - LES 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/wino-les-2/) - 1986, between Delancey and Houston, one of the most well-known drunks on the lower East Side, and well-liked. That would be a funny drunk. - [WINO - LES](https://realstill.com/epigrams/wino-les/) - It's 1987, on the Lower East Side, in a vacant lot, i see a squatting wino, and approach, In a completely non-verbal, but highly communicative way, through mostly our eye movements, was granted access. - [WINDOW ON THE DEUCE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/window-on-the-deuce/) - The window at the Grand Luncheonette, 1989. - [WINDOW DOGS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/window-dogs/) - In East Cleveland, on Supeior Avenue, one dog stand guard, while the Boss looks on. - [WILLIE BOONE'S MAILBOX](https://realstill.com/epigrams/willie-boones-mailbox/) - Beaver Ave. home of Willie Boone. - [WILLIE BOONE'S DOORSTEPS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/willie-boones-doorsteps/) - [WILLIAMSBURG, SOUTH SIXTH STREET, FEBUARY 11, 2006](https://realstill.com/epigrams/williamsburg-south-sixth-street-febuary-11-2006/) - At the time it was the deepest snowfall on reord, surpassed once, in 2016. - [WILLIAMSBURG WINTER WINDOW](https://realstill.com/epigrams/williamsburg-winter-window/) - © 1989 RealStill View from my back window when i lived on the third floor. Clotheslines would catch the snow, like trees. When these no-law home-made tenements were constructed there was no electricity, and an outhouse in each backyard. Electric was old, insulation would powder off wires inside walls, so dryers and air conditioners were not - [WILLIAMSBURG SUNSET](https://realstill.com/epigrams/williamsburg-sunset/) - The Cathedral of the Transfiguration Russian Church, North 12th Street. - [WILLIAMSBURG HISTORICAL SOCIETY 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/williamsburg-historical-society-2/) - Our local members of the Historical Society, Frankie, Jonnie Plumb, Meatball, Boy-Boy, Jimmy Black, et al, located across the street from my home, discuss the current and past neighborhood history. - [WILLIAMSBURG HISTORICAL SOCIETY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/williamsburg-historical-society/) - Our local member of the Historical Society, located across the street from my home, discuss the current and past neighborhood history. - [WILLIAMSBURG BACKYARD, 1986](https://realstill.com/epigrams/williamsburg-backyard-1986/) - View from my kitchen window, Williamsburg, 1986. Truly a garden apartment. In the old Williamsburg, we liked a little blight, to keeps rents low. - [WILLET'S POINT PUDDLE 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/willets-point-puddle-2/) - On Willets Point Avenue a car sits in the flooded street as the 7 train passes in the distance. - [WILLET'S POINT PUDDLE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/willets-point-puddle/) - Willet's Point Avenue, 2014. In the next year every shop in this picture would be gone. In 2020 it still is an empty field, awaiting development because it sits next to Citi Field. That's the Seven Train in the distance. The streets have always looked this way here. It's city land and the city had been - [WILLET'S POINT EFFIGY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/willets-point-effigy/) - A home-made expression of the joys of basic labor. - [WHOSE YOUR TEAM?](https://realstill.com/epigrams/whose-your-team/) - What's that city you like? And, whose your team? - [WHITE GOLD](https://realstill.com/epigrams/white-gold/) - In the Iron Triangle section of Queens, the work is hard and dirty, so much so, alcohol, weed and coke products are made ready for consumption. - [WHITE EAST CLEVELAND ROOF PIT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/white-east-cleveland-roof-pit/) - In the suburb of East Cleveland, the neighbohood roof pit is a native pit bull species. - [WHIMSICAL TOMB](https://realstill.com/epigrams/whimsical-tomb/) - In Woodlawn Cemetery, the Woolworth tomb goes against the grain of grief. - [WHERE THEY MADE JUKES](https://realstill.com/epigrams/where-they-made-jukes/) - The Rock-Ola Plant at 800 North Kedzie in 1981, was founded in 1926 as Peerless Weight & Vending Machine Co. by David Rockola and adopted its founder's name in 1934. The 600,000 square foot Kedzie Road Plant was near complete shutdown by 1981 with som minimal vending machine production. The company eventually moved to Addison Illinois where Mr. - [WHERE DUCKS WALK ON FISH](https://realstill.com/epigrams/where-ducks-walk-on-fish/) - They don't tell you that the ducks do not spontaneously walk on the fish. It's a fight for food, in this case, they are fighting over white bread, thrown to them by folks as a tourist curiousity. These are the kind of attractions that flourished in the fifties and sixties, and this borderland of Ohio and - [WHAT'S IN A NAME?](https://realstill.com/epigrams/whats-in-a-name/) - You tell me. - [WHAT'S HARDER THAN LOSING?](https://realstill.com/epigrams/whats-harder-than-losing/) - On East 103rd Street the sentiment is for the under dogs. - [WHAT'S AMERICAN? 5](https://realstill.com/epigrams/whats-american-5/) - Yeah, ruins, they're American, too. Many people come here from another country and are so surprised how wide swaths of cities can get so run-down and neglected. Many from other places do not understand abandonment, particularly on such a large scale. For myself, ruins symbolize the struggles of continually overcoming setbacks, only to be screwed and - [WHAT'S AMERICAN? 4](https://realstill.com/epigrams/whats-american-4/) - This, too, is American. Teenagers or younger, being killed and doing the killing. - [WHAT'S AMERICAN? 3](https://realstill.com/epigrams/whats-american-3/) - This is vandalized rock art at Temple Mountain in Utah. Thirteen rifle shots and someone's name, in 1977, date a period of American history, where things get desacrated, not from war and hatred, but the pure pleasure of it. This, too, sadly, is, somewhat, American. - [WHAT'S AMERICAN? 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/whats-american-2/) - The infamous Ghost Panel in Horseshoe Canyon, which was not called that prior to the 1500s. Have you ever seen a thing, more American, as this, possibly 5,000 year old, the panel is amongst the oldest of Native art works, and one of the largest. - [WHAT'S AMERICAN?](https://realstill.com/epigrams/whats-american/) - Rhetorically speaking. - [WHAT WE ALL WANT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/what-we-all-want/) - Rick heads down East 71 Street, past the matress store, that was originally a commercial and resdiential building in a very large Hungarian neighborhood, - [WHAT PRICE, TO WORK AND LIVE?](https://realstill.com/epigrams/what-price-to-work-and-live/) - [WHAT PRICE, SOUND?](https://realstill.com/epigrams/what-price-sound/) - Every New Year's, the author records clebratory gun shots in one of America's top crime cities. Starting with cassette recorders, reel-to-real nagras, dat tape, and, now, fully digital compact field recorders. Like with cameras, recorders can now be dropped at a location and record easily for up to 15 hours. While retreiving one of my - [WHAT PRICE, GONE?](https://realstill.com/epigrams/what-price-gone/) - In an assessment of action and grief, there’s no benefit, let alone profit, in shooting the good, bad, decrepit, known, lost, forgotten and found. There is a price. Opened in 1894, the Tifereth Israel Temple on East 55th Street and Central Avenue (originally known as The Willson Avenue Temple) is the oldest still-standing synagogue building in the city. It - [WHAT PRICE, ENTERTAINMENT? 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/what-price-entertainment-2/) - Feinstein Iron Works being demolished in 2015. - [WHAT PRICE, ENTERTAINMENT?](https://realstill.com/epigrams/what-price-entertainment/) - This was 23 acres of metalworks, auto shops, and junkyards, by, I’m standing next to, what’s left of, the late. Artist, Joe Z’s Iron Triangle Installation that he create with found materials in an Iron Triangle brownfield turned toxic marsh. The land itself is owned by the city of New York which had leased it, - [WHAT PRICE MOON LIGHT?](https://realstill.com/epigrams/what-price-moon-light/) - Before digital, with film, there was a thing called reciprocity, that, generally, means that the length of exposure increases exponentially as the exposures get longer, unlike digital which makes long exposures very easy including my specialty moonlight, since, amongst other things, digital has no reciprocity. This is five years of batteries that I had to use - [WHAT IT'S LIKE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/what-its-like/) - © 2010 RealStill Scrapping iniside the Victoreen Geiger Counter factory on Woodland Avenue In Cleveland. There's not much i've shot that i haven't done myself. - [WHAT DOES IT MATTER?](https://realstill.com/epigrams/what-does-it-matter/) - I don't care if it's a new door or not. - [WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?](https://realstill.com/epigrams/what-do-you-mean-by-that/) - Are you in a position of disregard or commanding view? - [WESTCHESTER AVENUE STATION](https://realstill.com/epigrams/westchester-avenue-station/) - The station became noted for the ivey that grew over it and that was let go, like the building. In 2021, the vines were killed. Don't let the decay for you. The area just behind the old train station was transformed years ago at concrete park. To the left across the street is a new park, very impressive one, - [WEST BRONX WINTER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/west-bronx-winter/) - [WELCOME TO THE WEST SIDE OF CHICAGO, 1982](https://realstill.com/epigrams/welcome-to-the-west-side-of-chicago-1982/) - The message was on the front entrance to an apartment building on Kedzie Ave. in 1982. Has anything changed? On the West Side, that is, or in the many places that began as working-class strongholds? These places got poorer. The large factories all over the west side began to close in the eighties. And never - [WELCOME TO THE BRONX](https://realstill.com/epigrams/welcome-to-the-bronx/) - Gentrification is not welcome here, more so, than any other borough. Past blight and current poverty have helped to keep the Bronx affordable, but it is flippin. - [WELCOME TO OUR CITY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/welcome-to-our-city/) - At the town center of New Philadelphia Ohio, on the roof of the Alexander Building. The sign was first put up in 1912 and the play by Wolfe was written in 1925, which is good for the town that, i'm sure, see any irony in the greeting. - [WE GOT YOUR BACK](https://realstill.com/epigrams/we-got-your-back/) - On East 150th Street in the Melrose sction of the Bronx, a boy will grow up. - [WATCH YOUR BACK](https://realstill.com/epigrams/watch-your-back/) - Tim Willis inside one of his own ceations. - [WASTELAND COLONIAL 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/wasteland-colonial-2/) - [WASTELAND COLONIAL](https://realstill.com/epigrams/wasteland-colonial/) - In the Forgotten Triangle section of Cleveland, Ernest has built a number of homes, and favors the colonial style of architecture. - [WASH DAY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/wash-day/) - [WARMING UP IN THE RUST BELT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/warming-up-in-the-rust-belt/) - In cities where the tenants pay for their heat, the morning ritual is the warming of the hands while coffee brews, and heating only one room with space heaters to survive, and save money. In those cities where the landlord pays for the heat, the windows are kept open in winter, and you can walk around - [WAPA CHIEF](https://realstill.com/epigrams/wapa-chief/) - The Wapakeneta Movie Theatre in Wapakeneta, Ohio. The theatre was built in 1904 and this shot is from 2004 - [WAHOO CONUNDRUM 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/wahoo-conundrum-2/) - Bob follows a pair of Indian fans towards opening day, and, as an Apache Native, says it all without any words. - [WAHOO CONUNDRUM 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/wahoo-conundrum-1/) - [WAHOO CAVERS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/wahoo-cavers/) - In April, 2021, a man protests the elimination of Chief Wahoo and the name, Indians, from his home's team. - [VICTOR IN THE JUNKYARDS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/victor-in-the-junkyards/) - Victor, one of the Iron Triangle icons, makes his living as a mechanic on the streets of the Junkyards in Queens, and must remain unfazed by his work environment, to make his money, in order to do the Liberty Dance. Out of this toxic marsh, that were former salvage yards, the artist "Joe" created, in 2018, a large - [UNDERCOVER ALCOHOLIC](https://realstill.com/epigrams/undercover-alcoholic/) - What's Orlando doing with that mask on in the Junkyards? - [UNDER THE BOARDWALK](https://realstill.com/epigrams/under-the-boardwalk/) - Underneath the Coney Island boardwalk in 1987. Due to concerns about crime, under Gulianni, the spaces underneath the boardwalk were filled with sand, making this 20 minute exposure impossible. even with a digital camera that would have done the same thing in 3 minutes. - [TWOSHOES, TIMES SQUARE SUBWAY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/twoshoes-times-square-subway/) - It's 1988, and, a couple years into the Deuce book. I just sold my car and, decided to go hyper-local, and take the subway into Times Square and 42nd St., almosr every night, often until sunrise until it was gone by 1994. Obviously i can shoot only one way, my own, and, that means participation, - [TWOSHOES, GRAND LUNCHEONETTE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/twoshoes-grand-luncheonette/) - During a slow week day night on the Deuce, awaiting some action or person of interest. - [TWOSHOES, BAR ORATORY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/twoshoes-bar-oratory/) - [TWOSHOES ON THE DEUCE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/twoshoes-on-the-deuce/) - Hangin out at the outdoor window at the Grand Luncheonette. The Harris (Chandler) was built in 1904 and demolshied in 1997. A Tad's, Peepland and the theatre on the far right, was the Liberty, built in 1904, demolished in 1998. Late in 1997, its foundation shaken by demolition, the Selwyn Theater collapsed, burying the Grand - [TWOSHOES & AL AT THE GRAND LUNCHEONETTE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/twoshoes-al-at-the-grand-luncheonette/) - Slow night on the Deuce, at, probably the most beloved luncheonette in New York. It's gone. The theatre and office building collapsed in1997, and it was cleaned up, but not forgotten. - [TWO-HEADED DRAGON](https://realstill.com/epigrams/two-headed-dragon/) - [TWO ON TEN](https://realstill.com/epigrams/two-on-ten/) - In an abandoned factory in 2009 the only thing left is a safetry banner. - [TWO BLOCKS FROM THE SCRAPYARD](https://realstill.com/epigrams/two-blocks-from-the-scrapyard/) - [TUNNEL OF FAME](https://realstill.com/epigrams/tunnel-of-fame/) - League park is one of the original homes of the Cleveland Indians located in the Hough neighborhood. The Indians moved to big old Municipal Stadium in 1931. League Park went into descent until 2013 when its planned rehabbed of what's left took place. This tunnel led into the dugout and anyone who played the game between - [TROUGH](https://realstill.com/epigrams/trough/) - A stabile, now gone, still had all its original finishings, plus cups, a ladle and ancient license plate, in 2015. - [TRINITY CEMETERY VIEW](https://realstill.com/epigrams/trinity-cemetery-view/) - [TRIMMING THE FAT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/trimming-the-fat/) - For over 100 years they trim the fat for Slovenian suasage at Frank Azman's Meats market on St. Clair in the old Slovenian neighborhood. - [TRIBOROUGH SUNSET](https://realstill.com/epigrams/triborough-sunset/) - Today's it's called the R.F.K., but i prefer its original name. - [TRIANGLE ROOTS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/triangle-roots/) - The tree most likely grew from a sampling planted when the section of the forgotten triangle was heavily Hungarian. The house that it sits in front of was demolished in 2017. It's on a road called Ambler and seven houses left a long three blocks stretch to the end of the street. I would call - [TRIANGLE FLAG](https://realstill.com/epigrams/triangle-flag/) - On East 83rd Street where it dead-ends at Kinsman, is the last structure on the entire street from Kinsman to Holton - many blacks long. On the fence, next to the old garage a flag was posted many years until it got to this shape in 2012. The area is the Fogotten Triangle, and, by this time - [TREE HOUSE 7](https://realstill.com/epigrams/tree-house-7/) - A home on Holyoke Street in East Cleveland. - [TREE HOUSE 6](https://realstill.com/epigrams/tree-house-6/) - [TREE HOUSE 5](https://realstill.com/epigrams/tree-house-5/) - [TREE HOUSE 4](https://realstill.com/epigrams/tree-house-4/) - [TREE HOUSE 3](https://realstill.com/epigrams/tree-house-3/) - [TREE HOUSE 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/tree-house-2/) - [TREE HOUSE 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/tree-house-1/) - Utica Avenue, Cleveland. Let me see, i remember there was some yard work that i wanted to do. - [TOXIC WASTE SITE HEALTH CHECK](https://realstill.com/epigrams/toxic-waste-site-health-check/) - A worker in the Iron Tiriangle having his blood pressure checked, while relaxing and reading a book about the gentrification of Willimasburg, Brooklyn. It is important to monitor all workers within toxic waste zones for any ill health effects, especially prior to gentrification, where, the landscape, left to its own organic descent, can be deadly. - [TOXIC SNOWMAN](https://realstill.com/epigrams/toxic-snowman/) - In Blissvile, Queens on 36th Street a snowman decorated with garbage and debris. - [TOXIC MEDIA](https://realstill.com/epigrams/toxic-media/) - A television set at low tide in the English kills section of Newtown Creek. Enough said, capish? - [TIRED ON SUPERIOR](https://realstill.com/epigrams/tired-on-superior/) - Chilling on a tire along Superior Avenue on the Cleveland/East Cleveland border. The blue dot above his head means that the large resedential and commercial building, that i was shooting, will soon be demolished. - [TIRED IN A TREE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/tired-in-a-tree/) - Along Machinery Ave., just off East 70th Street in the St. Clair section of Cleveland, for many years there was this scene in a little sliver of nature along machiney Avenue. In this section of town the streets rre dead ends, and everything north of St. Clair is industry with some homes tucked in between. I couldn't think - [TIRE SHOP PROTOCOLS 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/tire-shop-protocols-2/) - Ironically the ghetto tire shop has the highest price for air ever recorded. - [TIRE SHOP PROTOCOLS 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/tire-shop-protocols-1/) - Rules are rules, even concerning one's lug-nots. - [TIN PAN ALLEY SCENE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/tin-pan-alley-scene/) - A winter night on West 28th Street after a snowstorm. Housing the sheet music publishers for the popular music of the day beginning in 1880, and untouched by rehabilitation today. It's still rent-protected. - [TIME CLOCK](https://realstill.com/epigrams/time-clock/) - Stahl Gear was founded in 1917 and is still making industrial gears. It's fascility is actually a livig museum where machine tools going back to the 1800s exist along with newer equipmen. The time clock dates back to the start of the company and is a National Recorder brand. - [TILTED CROSS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/tilted-cross/) - In 2020 the cross atop St. Michael's School seems ready to topple, which is a bad sign, in the sense that, the structure had two possibilities for the future - demolition or rehabilitation. The school has been sitting empty for many years and the parish did not have enough money to maintain the property. However, the neighborhood - [TICKET PLEA](https://realstill.com/epigrams/ticket-plea/) - [THUNDERBOLT SIGN](https://realstill.com/epigrams/thunderbolt-sign/) - Moran's Thunderbolt could have been saved. Plans fell through. - [THUNDERBOLT RESIDENCE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/thunderbolt-residence/) - The Thunderbolt Roller Coaster at Coney Island in 1987. The last family member was allowed to live there after the coaster was closed in a redevelopment scheme that never worked out. - [THREE WINDOWS, 2004](https://realstill.com/epigrams/three-windows-2004/) - "B" "C" & "D" Furnaces, Bethelehem Steel, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. - [THOU SHALT NOT...](https://realstill.com/epigrams/thou-shalt-not/) - The corner of 67th and Detroit in 1979. - [THINKER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/thinker/) - When shooting, the first thing you might hear is, “What are you doing?” I say, “Pictures.” Followed by, “What’s it for?” I say, “Nuthin.” A real Thinker is uninterested in answers, so i asked, “what’s been on your mind?” Thinker, “Why did they put me outside?” RealStill, “I’ve asked myself the same question.” Thinker, - [THINK YOU GOT IT BAD? 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/think-you-got-it-bad-2/) - On Broadway Avenue at East 55th Street a human billboard advertises for Liberty Tax, a tax service willing to be located in the ghetto. Although many of these liberty tax human billboard workers say they love their job, this guy doesn't seem to be that enthused. How 'bout you? How would you feel? - [THINK YOU GOT IT BAD?](https://realstill.com/epigrams/think-you-got-it-bad/) - Taking a break, behind a wall, a man without legs, sleeps. - [THIEVELAND](https://realstill.com/epigrams/thieveland/) - © 2010 RealStill The criminal gangs of Glenville are amongst the most responsible and ecologically friendly felons in all of America. - [THE WILD MAN OF TIMES SQUARE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-wild-man-of-times-square/) - Up until 1994 i shot the last cast of characters in Times Square and Forty-Second Street. There were two truly wild ones, that stood out from the pack by their isolation, dress and manor. A typical look by this gentlman was when he stuck a couple dozen straws in his hair. I wasn't quite sure - [THE WAPA THEATRE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-wapa-theatre/) - The Wapa Theatre in Wapakoneta, Ohio, 2004, built in 1904. It was a live theatre until 1939, when the marque was added. It was also originally known as the Brown Theatre, named for the man who built it, and now named after the town of Wapakoneta. - [THE ULTIMATE APHORISM](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-ultimate-aphorism/) - Written on the wall of a jail cell in the old Cuyahoga County Jail in 1980. This is also a pure epigram. - [THE TRAIN](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-train/) - They call him "The Train" for obvious reasons. This day, on Brook Avenue, where his preferred can depot is, Miguel ws bringing in eight shopping carts powered by him pulling the carts by a strap around his shoulder. All of the carts are strapped together, as well, and can pivot around corners. Considering they are empty cans, - [THE THINKER SPEAKS 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-thinker-speaks-1/) - Made of brass, i can withstand a lot, i was put outside, and, given a prominent place, the top of the steps to the museum’s old main entrance, that's been closed for many years. These aren't exactly the stairs in Rocky, but it’s a better museum. I'm, in this bubble called University Circle, a unique - [THE THINKER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-thinker/) - The statue lies on the ground, blown off its pedastal. (the plain dealer) In 1970 August Rodin's The Thinker was blown off its pedastel with dynamite. The statue itself was damged - feet blown off and pieces of a legs shattered. To the Museum's credit they put the staue back on a pedestel with all its - [THE STATE OF PROTEST - 2016](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-state-of-protest-2016/) - The RNC in Cleveland in 2016 featured state of the art demonstrations by every side, and little else. Often the protest were merely on the individual level, often too bizarre for anyone's good. The strtaegy does, theoreticllaly, attrct more attention, for the image-oriented, but seems lost in a singular performance. - [THE SKINNY HOME](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-skinny-home/) - It ain't the Flatiron, but it is a narrow residence that knows how to use a corner and an aentenna just outside Paterson NJ. - [THE ROCK INDUSTRY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-rock-industry/) - The chimney for the powerhouse at the Rock-Ola plant at 800 North Kedzie Street, Chicago in 1982. http://www.jukeboxhistory.info/RockOla/ROC-factory.html - [THE RED SCHOOL HOUSE 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-red-school-house-2/) - The little red school house in central Ohio, a one hour time exposure by moonlight and shot on film. - [THE RED SCHOOL HOUSE 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-red-school-house-1/) - Built in 1875, the red school house in a one hour exposure on film by moon light. - [THE PRIEST'S PRIEST](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-priests-priest/) - St. Thomas Aquinas, in statue form, adorning the main entrance into a seminary, turned group home, and recently sold to developers. - [THE POWER OF PRAYER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-power-of-prayer/) - This is a testament to the power of prayer, with proof. Over a period of time, in my neighborhood, every year, at the Feast, I prayed to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, to intercede and ask God, to grant a wish. As you can see, OLMC, draping cash, delivered. Of course like, chatGTP, results are - [THE PERFECT LOCATION FOR A CHEAT SPOT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-perfect-location-for-a-cheat-spot/) - In 2020, on Grand Street, in the Forgotten Triangle section of town, is the ideal location for a cheat spot. It became more so after the street dead-ended right outside the door, because a parkway call the Opportunity Corridor was slicing through the Forgotten Triangle lands which, through unchecked decline, basically look like this or worse. - [THE ORIGINAL KEWPIE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-original-kewpie/) - Started in Lima Ohio in 1918, Kewpie's moved into this builing in 1930. Kewpie prefigured all the burger franchises that were years off in the future. - [THE ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE MOVEMENT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-organic-architecture-movement/) - A great example of the organic archtiecture movement whose concern for maintenance is zero. - [THE OLDEST ALTAR BOY IN THE WORLD](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-oldest-altar-boy-in-the-world/) - Walter Szylwian stands at the altar of his church, St. Casimir. - [THE OLDER CATHOLICiSM 8](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-older-catholicism-8/) - A detail from inside one of the side altars at St. Rocco Church honoring Saint Prospero di Faeto - [THE OLDER CATHOLICISM 7](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-older-catholicism-7/) - Inside St. Michael's Church. - [THE OLDER CATHOLICISM 6](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-older-catholicism-6/) - t St. Roccos there are side altars that may seem dated in a church built in 1960 but they originate from the original church built in 1899 in this west side Italian enclave. - [THE OLDER CATHOLICISM 5](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-older-catholicism-5/) - On a small stage in the basement of St. George church is the bingo and roullete hall that were exempt from the old gambling laws. The chiuch is seen by many as sometimes obsessed or associated with grandeur and ceremony, but many churches, some may have old grand buildings, but in every other way are - [THE OLDER CATHOLICISM 4](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-older-catholicism-4/) - St. Rocco's church is lined on either side with shrines that date before the modernization of the church in the sixties. Apparently honoring the Ruggiero's family's intentions transcends trends. - [THE OLDER CATHOLICISM 3](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-older-catholicism-3/) - A Lithuanian-American tribute inside St. George church, Superior Avenue, Cleveland. The shot was taken during the last Mass at the old Lithuanian parish on Superior Avenue in October, 2009. It's Saint Sebatian shot with arrows. The Slovenians were neighbors to the west and north, and Polish to the east. Although St. George closed, it moved further east and - [THE OFFICES OF SUNRISE AUTO JUNKYARD 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-offices-of-sunrise-auto-junkyard-2/) - Inside the offices of Nathan's Sunrise Auto Parts, where customer service is direct and honest, and each ethnic owner brings their culture to help watch iver the business. It's the junkyards in Queens, 2013, months before this shop and dozens of others swiftly disappeared for redevelopment. - [THE OFFICES OF SUNRISE AUTO JUNKYARD 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-offices-of-sunrise-auto-junkyard-1/) - [THE OFFICES OF REALSTILL 2018](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-offices-of-realstill-2018/) - Proof-reading the smash book, Art & Gentification in the executive offices of RealStill, located in the Willet's Point section of Queeens, a.k.a., the Junkyards. - [THE OFFICES OF REALSTILL 2016](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-offices-of-realstill-2016/) - RealStill, grudgingly, has maintained a presence in the Rust Belt at all times. Here, on Superior Avenue in the Hough section of Cleveland, paperwork is dealt with, and meeting with clients is conducted. Usually RealStill offices are located in the actual locations and landscapes depicted, but sometimes a more controlled situation is required, especailly during inventory - [THE OFFICES OF REALSTILL 1986](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-offices-of-realstill-1986/) - © 1986 RealStill The Jones & Laughlin mill in the background had just been shut. Another mill, Republic, that was even larger was next to this mill and both would become LTV Steel and live on. There were two more bankruptcies for LTV Steel, and, in 2004 it was bought by ISG and lit up once - [THE MORAN THUNDERBOLT RESIDENCE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-moran-thunderbolt-residence/) - The Thunderbolt Roller Coaster at Coney Island in 1987. The last family member was allowed to live there after the coaster was closed in a redevelopment scheme that never worked out. - [THE MONKEY ON MY PORCH](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-monkey-on-my-porch/) - Proving once more that every day is Halloween in the gothic world of Cleveland, a young man is surprised to find a playah chimpanzee on his front porch. - [THE MEMORY OF ROCKEFELLER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-memory-of-rockefeller/) - When John D. Rockefeller began what became the modern oil industry he built his "Homestead" and dream house at his Forest Hill Estate in what is now East Cleveland and Cleveland Heights. Mr. Rockefeller wound up disliking Cleveland and forgetting it, and the feeling was mutual, only to return to be buried at Laeview Cemetery two - [THE MANIFESTO OF ARISTOTLE WALTERS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-manifesto-of-aristotle-walters/) - One day in 1980 Aristotle handed me his manifesto, much of which looked like a kidnapper's ransom note, with its cut and paste aesthetic. - [THE LAST HULLETS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-last-hullets/) - LTV Steel Hullers, Chicago 12/03 - the LTV Coke Chicago Plant along the Calumet River was supplied with its coal by barge that can up from downstate Illinois over a system of rivers and canals. Both this facility and the one in the background - Acme Steel - closed in the Big Steel Recession of 2001 when - [THE LAST BODEGA](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-last-bodega/) - Capellan Grocery, 383 East 138th Street, Mott Haven, Bronx. - [THE INGROWN CITY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-ingrown-city/) - Friendship Church, originally built in 1894 as the Temple on Willson, or simply, The Temple, and is now the Friendship Baptist Church that officially closed in 2014, but had been in serious decline for many years. There's a name for this sort of thing, endolithic lithophytes For instance the Welsh had a name for trees growing from stone - [THE HANDS OF VICTOR](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-hands-of-victor/) - Victor gets down on 38th Ave., in the Queens Junkyards, to make some money. - [THE HANDS OF JOE YOST](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-hands-of-joe-yost/) - The hands of Joe Yost (1989) who worked and lived in the (Forgotten) Triangle around 79th and Holton. Joe was a mechanic and scrapper. This shot is at the homes across the street, from where he workedhttps://realstill.com/epigrams/the-hands-of-joe-yost/ - a place called, Tires, Tires, Tires - Joe just got done washing up, it's not possible to remove all the - [THE GOLDEN COUCH OF ENTERTAINMENT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-golden-couch-of-entertainment/) - Shea Stadium was set way off from the Junkyards in Queens, surrounded by thousands of parking spaces. When the Mets built Citi Field it was acreoss the atreet from the Iron Trinagle, where their offices would look down on a dirty loud and chaotic work zone of salvage yards, iron works and countless small shops. - [THE GHOUL'S SET](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-ghouls-set/) - The Ghoul, descendent of the renowned, Ghoulardi, had his set for his show inside an old factory in the Collinwood section of Cleveland. This used to be, in fact, the Kuhlman Car Works, that is owned by a Ghoul friend and their family. family. The show had been off the air for some years, and was nice to sit - [THE FUTURE OF THE JUNKYARDS IS GENTRIFICATION](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-future-of-the-junkyards-is-gentrification/) - When the Mets built their new stadium, it ended up directly across the street from the Iron Triangle, a 65 acre tangle of salvage yards and auto shops, where Shea was at the opposite end far to the south. This window repair shop disappeared in 2013 along with dozens of shops in a 23 acre - [THE FRIGHT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-fright/) - Flushing Bay, College Point, Queens - i kept checking the name of the tug, and i still do today. It's true. It's called the Fright, an example of the self-fulfilling prophecy. - [THE DISGRACEFUL HUMOR OF ARCHITECTURAL DEFACING](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-disgraceful-humor-of-architectural-defacing/) - Tile, terra cotta, stone carving and beer can in Chicago. - [THE DIRECT APPROACH](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-direct-approach/) - In Coney Island a resident mkaes a point. - [THE CRAZIES](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-crazies/) - People - contact, amongst folks, anything can happen. People who have suffered from other people find places, and, today, medications for what ails them. Many versions exist simultaneously of the name origins of the mountains here - the most popular one is that it's a site of profound violence, where a lone survivor ended her - [THE CLEVELANDER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-clevelander/) - At Biggie's on 55th in Cleveland, both the cars and the menu are full-Cleveland. Hey, is that Bron? Yo, Biggie, you given 'Bron his cut? - [THE CLEVELAND KNOT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-cleveland-knot/) - Cleveland, changing a bit now, has been one of the most native-born cities in America for a very long time. The city led the nation for population loss from 1952 until around 2008 when it was unseated by Detroit. Even the last census confirmed it's still losing prople, about at Detroit's level. Assuming the ones with - [THE CEILING AT ST. LAWRENCE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-ceiling-at-st-lawrence/) - The ceiling was made by Slovenian immigrants who built the church in one of the most industrialized sections of the city. In 2009 the diocese of Cleveland closed many ethnic churches. Saint Lawrence was one of them. - [THE BLUE-COLLAR HAND](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-blue-collar-hand/) - Auto factory accident took out the thumb. Lemme guess, you like Cleveland? - [THE BIRDMAN OF KINGSBRIDGE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-birdman-of-kingsbridge/) - His name is Stanley and he used to be on Kingsbridge Road around the Armory all the time. Before seeing him, you could - [THE BEST PLACE IN THE WORLD](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-best-place-in-the-world/) - Butte ain't shy. - [THE BED BUG CLUB](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-bed-bug-club/) - Carrol Gardens Social Club, down by the Gowanuc Canal, 2006. - [THE BEAUTY IN BOWLING BALLS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-beauty-in-bowling-balls/) - Obie Porter was a farmer in the South, before moving to Lexington Avenue in Cleveland in the forties. In addition to his produce, Obie also was into flowers and landscaping. His favorite objects were bowling balls which he positioned throught his gardens. He reflected the special place of bowling in the city's history, as - [THE AMERICAN RIGHT OF PASSAGE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-american-right-of-passage/) - Intoxicants, as American as cholestorol. There's not too much wrong with it while young. Pride in your American right of passage, and your zip code - the evolving history of booze as each generation makes it their own - i cannot fight. When older there will be fighting unless one moderates. - [THE ALTERNATIVE TO LIVING AS BROTHERS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-alternative-to-living-as-brothers/) - RealStill, ultimately, while preserving everyone's preferences, advocates for the old "in many, one" and sees identity politics as interesting, but not an end. - [THE ALLURE OF CHEAP VODKA](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-allure-of-cheap-vodka/) - Many folks simply cannot afford fine vodka. Others want simply to consume in large quantities for the sake of the buzz. The availability of these products means all can enjoy the pleasures of vodka. Until you develop cancer of the liver, of course. - [THE "BUZZARDS" OF BUCKEYE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/the-buzzards-of-buckeye/) - Locally the big ironic thing on March 15 every year is to go out into Metroparks, a green band that loops around Cleveland, and welcome the return of a buzzard population to Hinckley. But, in what came to be known as the Forgotten Triangle, another committee of buzzards has found a home. In the Triangle, for a long time, there - [THAT'S SO GANGSTER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/thats-so-gangster/) - With a parking space carved from the snow on the front lawn, this crew is ready to roll. - [TȞAŠÚŊKE WITKÓ](https://realstill.com/epigrams/tȟasunke-witko/) - Out by Wounded Knee, you'll find this historic marker of the Lakota. He was the epitome of the tragic hero, in a time when his tribe had peaked in culture. We know it was peaking, because all there was after his surrender was a fall. Both reading the history and experiencing the enviroment compleely enrches - [TEMPLE MOUNTAIN ROCK ART](https://realstill.com/epigrams/temple-mountain-rock-art/) - Temple Mountain, Utah - Fremont pictograph on flaking sandstone wall. The origins, actual age, meaning and the materials will never be known, someone or some people long gone made it thousands of years ago, petroglyphs - the carving, ROB '77 and the bullet holes, defintivley date this themselves to at least, 1977, the meaning is clear too - - [TELEVISION](https://realstill.com/epigrams/television/) - Englis Kills, or canal, that expanded the reach of Newtown Creek, was built for industrial transportation into the former center for New York's heavy industry. It's still a place of much manufacturng but without the heavy toxins. The pollution and industry was so great that its legacy will ooze out of the bulkheads and sediments of the Creek for - [TANKS & TOWERS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/tanks-towers/) - The Tanks were demolished by implosion in July. 2001, and the Towers would fall eight weeks later, ushering in a new phase for the world and Greenpoint and Williamsburg that would catch fire with gentrification soon after. - [TANK MEMORIAL](https://realstill.com/epigrams/tank-memorial/) - [TAMALE ON A HUBCAP](https://realstill.com/epigrams/tamale-on-a-hubcap/) - In the junyards in Queens a large tamale is roasted on the inside of a hubcap over flame made of discarded wood. - [TALL ORDER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/tall-order/) - I don't know about the forever part, but the place is free to enter. - [SUDS TRIBUTE IN STONE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/suds-tribute-in-stone/) - On Kent Avenue along the Willimasburg waterfront, the old Schaeffer Brewery Works salutes beer and its ingredients. - [SUBWAY PAINTER, 1989](https://realstill.com/epigrams/subway-painter-1989/) - After another tour of duty on the Deuce, i was going home at sunrise and ran into this guy while transferring at 14th Street. - [SUBWAY OPEN DOORS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/subway-open-doors/) - [SUBWAY BAR](https://realstill.com/epigrams/subway-bar/) - The Subway Bar on East 59th Street. The rain and constant traffic directly off the 59th Street Bridge made this a real pain in the ass to shoot in film without light trails in the rain as well. Of course, it's closed now. It did reopen at another location. - [STREET VENDOR 4](https://realstill.com/epigrams/street-vendor-4/) - [STREET VENDOR 3](https://realstill.com/epigrams/street-vendor-3/) - The Tape Man in Times Square in 1989. He was selling something that was actually real and not the typical street scam offered locally, in fact, his home-made soul and R & B mix tapes had real value, and i still listen to them today. - [STREET VENDOR 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/street-vendor-2/) - In Chinatown, New York, in 1987, a vendor reapirs and fixes shoes on Mulberry Street. - [STREET VENDOR 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/street-vendor-1/) - Mulberry Street, Chinatown, Manhattan in 1986. This shoe repair man propped up a sheet of plywood on the sidewalk and created a shop for his craft. The job is more difficult in the winter and you can see the strain between the warm and cold months. - [STREET MONEY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/street-money/) - The top gangster in the Iron Triangle displays the wages of death. - [STREAM ENGINE 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/stream-engine-2/) - [STREAM ENGINE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/stream-engine/) - In the Bronx, October, 26, 2021, a car engine and other car parts survive in the middle of a stream in Van Courtland Park. - [STORE PATH](https://realstill.com/epigrams/store-path/) - [STOLEN TOOLS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/stolen-tools/) - On Dobbins Street in Greenpoint a worker adresses the thief who stole his tools. - [STEVE'S LUNCH](https://realstill.com/epigrams/steves-lunch/) - What can i say? Steve's was a classic, down and dirty 24/7 luncheonette along Lorain Avenue in Cleveland. Sadly, it burned down in 2012. - [STEEL WARNING](https://realstill.com/epigrams/steel-warning/) - On Addison Road in the old Slovenian/Lithuanian neighborhood a warning is etched in steel by a Croatian with a torch. The sign should last, well into the next century, and beyond. - [STEEL THROUGH A TREE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/steel-through-a-tree/) - Coping with a steel intrusion in Van Cortland Park, Bronx. The metaphor? Someone steals your home for life, or simply refuses to recognize any context beyond self, which is how someone steals your home, in the first place, and now you have to function with a piece of cold steel cutting through you everyday. - [STATUE WARS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/statue-wars/) - Taliban, the anti-war and anti-establishmnet protestors of the sixities, today's far left, post-war Italy and Germany were times when statues paid the price, and today's anti-statue movement is one of the bigger wars of culture ever declared. So-called activism or the showing and performing of your political or identity point of view is what today's demonstrations do better than - [STAINED GLASS 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/stained-glass-1/) - Add, what is now, Shiloh Baptist Church, a huge skylight helps illuminate the church, an old Jewish synagogue that was originally called B'nai Jeshurun in 1906. - [STAINED GLASS & BOSTON IVY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/stained-glass-boston-ivy/) - [STAHL GEAR](https://realstill.com/epigrams/stahl-gear/) - Stahl Gear, a family business, is a specialty gear-maker. Here, one of its many machine tools is set on automatic as it shaves metal into perfection bathed in a flow of metalworking fluids. Stahl Gear & Machine has been in business for 100 years, and has a stock of machinery going back even longer. - [STABILE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/stabile/) - Stabile Bank, Little Italy, NYC - 1986 - [SPUYTEN DUYVIL](https://realstill.com/epigrams/spuyten-duyvil/) - Spuyten Duyvil, tucked at the confluence of the Harlem and Hudson Rivers under the Henry Hudson Bridge, has been known as Speight den Duyvil, Spike & Devil, Spitting Devil, Spilling Devil, Spiten Debill and Spouting Devil, among other spellings. In Dutch, “spuyten duyvil,” the mostly-accepted spelling these days, can be pronounced two ways; one pronunciation means - [SPRING MEN](https://realstill.com/epigrams/spring-men/) - Ray Boca and one of his workers pose with one of Ray's creations made entirely of car springs and a brake drum. - [SPEAKER ARRAY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/speaker-array/) - At Exotic Motors in the Iron Trinagle in Queens, speaker installations are a specialty. - [SPACE MEMORIAL](https://realstill.com/epigrams/space-memorial/) - In Warren, Ohio a replica space ship serves as a memorial to Neil Armstrong with a half-scale replica of the Apollo 11 lunar lander that was installed in 2003 as a tribute to Armstrong. The fake spaceship stands nearly 13 feet tall and 12 feet wide, and is made of titanium. The ship is set on a - [SONNY O'DAY'S 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/sonny-odays-2/) - Sonny had the boxing ring from the Queen Mary in his bar, at least that's what he said. It wasn't unusual to have boxing rings in bars in Montana - [SONNY O'DAY'S 3](https://realstill.com/epigrams/sonny-odays-3/) - Sonny O'Day at his Laurel Montana bar. That's him in his twenties, in the picture behind him. Sonny made his name as a boxer, in more ways than one. Born Carlo Giorgi in Lucca, Italy, in 1913, his name was Americanized to Charles George when his family came to the United States in 1920. As - [SONNY O'DAY'S 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/sonny-odays-1/) - Sonny's Bar on East Main Street directly across from the town's massive railyards with his car partked outside on a slow Tuesday night in 1990. - [SON LIGHT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/son-light/) - A man walks past one of the few remaining old buildings along East 152nd Street in the Collinwood section of Cleveland. - [SOMETHING FOR NOTHING](https://realstill.com/epigrams/something-for-nothing/) - [SOLDI PER IL SANTO](https://realstill.com/epigrams/soldi-per-il-santo/) - Saint Rocco, the protector from plagues and disease, in 2014. In six years his services would be called in a big way. - [SOCCER PREDICTION](https://realstill.com/epigrams/soccer-prediction/) - [SOCCER BALL & WASTE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/soccer-ball-waste/) - A soccer ball lies in a toxic marsh that was once the site of junkyards in Willets Point, Queens. - [SLUMERICA](https://realstill.com/epigrams/slumerica/) - Addison Ave., Cleveland, 2016 - painted on the side of one of the many abandoned homes of the St. Clair-Superior neighborhood. Relatively speaking, it's crime happy and poverty rich, and there are divisions with the original Slovenians and Blacks. Make no mistake, both groups live in a slum, even by Cleveland standards. In the cities of the - [SLOVENIAN HOME AUDITORIUM LOBBY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/slovenian-home-auditorium-lobby/) - Slovenian National Home, Lobby, E. 80th Street, Cleveland, 2009. - [SLOVENIAN HOME AUDITORIUM](https://realstill.com/epigrams/slovenian-home-auditorium/) - The Slovenian National Home has one of its chapters on E. 82nd St. between Union Avenue and Aetna Avenue still in operation, although, St. Lawrence, next door was closed as a Slovenian parish in 2009. - [SINCERITY PRESS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/sincerity-press/) - © 1980 RealStill Chicago. - [SIGN OF HOPE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/sign-of-hope/) - The only factual words on this sign are East Cleveland. - [SIGN ME UP](https://realstill.com/epigrams/sign-me-up/) - [SHORTY'S TEAM](https://realstill.com/epigrams/shortys-team/) - Shorty shows off his favorite team's logos in the Junkyards in the summer of 2021. Club America is a high power soccer club in Mexico City. You would think that this team goes to war when they play - "to death" - if required. Less than two years later Shorty's life in America would end - [SHORTY'S HOME & BUSINESS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/shortys-home-business/) - Shorty, who had come to the Junkyards from Mexico city, in 2011, and, took the work hard, play hard credo, to unusual limits, always lived where he worked, and his tools and his shelter were always at hand. Shorty got killed in 2023, when someone he knew, got intoi it while partying with him. - [SHORTY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/shorty/) - Shorty in 2018, five years before his murder on these streets in a fight with someone he knew. After partying all night, they fought. Shorty was small and tough, and got the upper hand immeditely, until he was beaten with a pipe, then run over. All of it witnessed by Dave, a 24/7 sober scrapper, - [SHERMAN CREEK 1998](https://realstill.com/epigrams/sherman-creek-1998/) - Both the Con Ed plant and the Sherman Creek Yacht Club on the verge of disappearance in Inwood where the now-filled in creek used to join the Harlem River. - [SHADEY LAKE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/shadey-lake/) - One hour exposure in 1998 for an Old Ohio amusement park. - [SCRAPPERS TRUCK 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/scrappers-truck-1/) - What's more junk, the truck, or its load? - [SCRAPPERS' HOME](https://realstill.com/epigrams/scrappers-home/) - [SCOFIELD MANSION](https://realstill.com/epigrams/scofield-mansion/) - Levi Scofield was quite the man. An architect that was strictly top-shelf, he built himself a stone mansion on the heights over the city on the east side. Its last use, was a nursing home, and, for many years, stood vacant wile slowly being scavenged. Since the views of the cty were excellent, i crept around the - [SCHOOL BELL](https://realstill.com/epigrams/school-bell/) - Bell at Empire School, one of 25 schools closed in one year in Cleveland, and, many more before that. - [SATAN'S DISCIPLES](https://realstill.com/epigrams/satans-disciples/) - A south side school yard in 1981 Chicago. We often hear about how it's too bad that hoods and gangsters don't use either their innate art or business sense to gain entry into a legit world of art and finance. Really? There are real resons why the criminal is what he is, and that's fundamental to why being in - [SANFORD 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/sanford-2/) - Sanford in the closed car wash he calls home in East Cleveland. His work if often bagel-themed. - [SANFORD 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/sanford-1/) - Sanford's work often consists of assembleages featuring bagels. An abandoned carwash in an operating gas station/convenience store location served as a home and shop for a number of years. Haven't seen him since 2012. - [RUST BELT REVIVAL, 1986](https://realstill.com/epigrams/rust-belt-revival-1986/) - In 1986, eight years after the birth of the Rust Belt, a former blue-collar worker, seeing his future, has set up an office and is scanning the classifieds for part-time temporary work in the service economy. - [RUSSO REALTY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/russo-realty/) - Russo Realty on Smith Street by Ninth couldn't be missed, even on the trains that passed overhead and stopped at the Smith & Ninth Street subway stop. Vinnie Russo began buying properties in 1947 and this was the headquarters for his neighborhood real estate empire. Mr. Russo died in 2006. Today his old buildings have been restored - [RUSSIAN-AMERICAN PATRIOT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/russian-american-patriot/) - It's September 12th on Second Avenue in Manhattan. Outbursts and expressions of love for America, especially by immmigrants and first-generation Americans. - [RUN FLAT TIRES](https://realstill.com/epigrams/run-flat-tires/) - What can i say? It's Willet's Point. - [ROTORS, NOT ROOTERS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/rotors-not-rooters/) - [ROOF VIEW, WILLIAMSBURG](https://realstill.com/epigrams/roof-view-williamsburg/) - [ROLLING TIRES](https://realstill.com/epigrams/rolling-tires/) - At the end of the day, Carlos rolls tires, that were on display, back into the shop, using some of his soccer skills. In 2019 Carlos died in a drowning accident in Flushing Bay, after work one night. He was a great guy. - [ROCK FALL](https://realstill.com/epigrams/rock-fall/) - From Hastings, NY, a rock fall along the cliffs of the Palisades in New Jersey. - [REVERSE COSPIRACY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/reverse-cospiracy/) - In Red Rock, Pennsylvania, definitely Trump country, a lone point of view, gets exposure. - [RELIABLE WELDING](https://realstill.com/epigrams/reliable-welding/) - © 1981 RealStill On the west side of Chicago, one welder's skills are beyond compare. - [RED SHOE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/red-shoe/) - Willets Point, Queens, the Junkyards. - [RED BIRD](https://realstill.com/epigrams/red-bird/) - Red bird transit cars cross the Wiliamsburg Bridge into Manhattan back in a time when one could literally touch the red birds along the old Willimasburg bridge walkway. - [REAL CITY SOCCER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/real-city-soccer/) - A little night soccer inside the Real City Auto Glass Shop, just outside Citi Field in November, 2013. Real City would be gone by 2014, taken out in the first big push to gentrify the Junkyards. - [REAL CITY GLASS MAN](https://realstill.com/epigrams/real-city-glass-man/) - Juse talk glass on the phone. - [READING THE BIBLE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/reading-the-bible/) - What better place to read scriptures, than Blanche and George Grimshaw's bedroom. They lived next door to me, in fact, i had originally moved into their old apartment after they took rooms next door. Years later in 2000, i had been trying to assemble a large cabinet/bookcase/entertainment center for them, but it was ridiculous to do, especially - [READ MORE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/read-more/) - [READ 3](https://realstill.com/epigrams/read-3/) - One of the Intellectual Grafitti Movement's master works along the Cuyahoga River. It's the demolition of the ice house that supplied refrigeration to the large Cold Storage building to make way for a new bridge over the Flats. Built as the Distribution Teminal Warehouse in 1928, it was an historic advancement in gargantuun refrigeration techniques. - [READ 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/read-2/) - The Intellectual Grafitti Movement's Joseph Feis & Sons site. Speaking of reading... - [READ 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/read-1/) - Site of the old ore docks for Upson Nut & Bolt, later Republic and finally Federal Steel & Wire along the Cuyahoga River. Reading, like still photography, and, unlike most media, leaves a viewer/reader in control to hold, examine and evaluate. Video media flows non-stop before our eyes and mind. Built in 1927, the Cold Storage Building - [RARE QUEENS HOME](https://realstill.com/epigrams/rare-queens-home/) - In Flushing, Queens one of the last older homes from 120 years ago sits next to a huge condo and shopping mall complex. Behind the home is LIRR tracks leading over the Flushing River which is just off to the right. Flushing, even though it's very far from Manhattan, is very densley populated and is - [RARE BRONX STORE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/rare-bronx-store/) - On Third Avenue just north of the Hub, at 153rd St., commercial real estate awaits redevelopment in the booming Bronx. - [RARE BRONX HOMES](https://realstill.com/epigrams/rare-bronx-homes/) - The Bronx is booming and this sort of scene is getting rarer, when it was practically the norm here in the South Bronx in Mott Haven. To find homes that haven't been rehabilitated is also very rare theses days, as is, ones that are occupied, and in fairly original shape. In 2021 the home on - [RACIST INFRASTRUCTURE?](https://realstill.com/epigrams/racist-infrastructure/) - It's the Cross Bronx Expressway as seen from the Grand Concourse, one of the many streets that the highway in a trench goes under. Lately it's become more of a symbol than it originally was, which was a sort of demarkation line from the terrible Sounth bronx of the 1970s. As far as a borderline - [QUESTIONS ANSWERED WITH ACTIONS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/questions-answered-with-actions/) - Although I find your question pretentious, it is a good one. - [QUESTION](https://realstill.com/epigrams/question/) - Main entrance to St. Philomena's school on Euclid Avenue in East Cleveland. It is said that the St. Philomena Sunday mass was the most desirable service held in the city, due to its relative brevity. - [QUEENS WATERFALL](https://realstill.com/epigrams/queens-waterfall/) - On the Queens side of English Kills, seemingly clear water enters the waterway. - [QUEENS GRAVE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/queens-grave/) - Mount Olivet Cemetery in Queens goes back to 1850 rural Queens. There aren't a lot of well-known names here, though, there are a few. It is the place where Legs Diamaond is buried, and that's something. - [QUEENS FIREWORKS 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/queens-fireworks-2/) - July Fourth, 2004, Calvary Cemetery, Queens, with 1.5 million burials, a largely working-class population is buried with a view on the city that they built. - [QUEENS FIREWORKS 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/queens-fireworks-1/) - The elevated #7 train passes down Roosevelt Avenue as the end of a Mets game is celebrated on one of three fireworks nights during the 2015 season. - [QUEENS DOUBLE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/queens-double/) - At a duplex home on 26th Avenue in Queens, in the Hallets Point section, neighbors share different tastes in both style and maintanence. - [QUEENS BOWL](https://realstill.com/epigrams/queens-bowl/) - In Nortern Queens, 48 lanes, always open. It's fat has, since this time, een in the balance. The owner definitely wants to sell, but needs a zoning varince to pass. When it does, Whitestone Lanes is a memroy. The whole area of Flushing continues to boom, especially with the Willet's Point redevelpment. - [PYLON APPROPRIATION](https://realstill.com/epigrams/pylon-appropriation/) - In 2010, the Caveliers got into the playoffs. One of the satues on the old Lorain Carnegie Bridge was adorned with a Cavs cap. Eventually the so-called "guardians" would also become outsized symbols for the city itself, as the city changed, and, like most cities, bought into gentrification, art districts, breweries and the culture of rehabbing the - [PYLON & HOME](https://realstill.com/epigrams/pylon-home/) - Or should i say Home & Pylon? Back in 1982 the transportation memorial statues on the Lorain Carnegie bridge, we're not entirely taken for granted (or granite), but definitely not appreciated or seen as profitable like they are today. The proof is in the pudding here in Duck Island where workers homes are neatly tucked into - [PUTTING YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/putting-your-money-where-your-mouth-is/) - In the Queens' Junkyards, Chris creates a demonstration, and proof that, indeed, cigarette smoking is bad for dental hygiene. - [PUMPJACK MOON](https://realstill.com/epigrams/pumpjack-moon/) - One of the most famous American oil fields, Salt Creek,Wyoming is still producing oil. This shot was taken in 1998, and the fields was owned ny Armoco at the time. 650 million barrels of oil have already been prduced here wirth the 1920s being the best years, when in one year alone 35 kmllion barrels - [PROOF OF VODKA](https://realstill.com/epigrams/proof-of-vodka/) - On Willet's Point Avenue, where 23 acres of car repair and junkyard businesses recently closed to build a shopping mall, Alex declares, the presence of vodka, particularly the Barton brand. At one time Alex ran a radiator repair shop that was located in the strip of shops behind him, that were shutdown by the city for - [PROOF](https://realstill.com/epigrams/proof/) - I speak. It is enough. - [PROMETHEUS ON BROADWAY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/prometheus-on-broadway/) - [PRETTY POISON 3](https://realstill.com/epigrams/pretty-poison-3/) - In the art and entertainment industries, take for, instance, the institution of art, where art works are stored, categorized and shown by the highly functional well-endowed, highly educated and absurdly revered institutions of art, as the vault for the highest works of culture ever accomplished by sometimes dysfunctional, always transactional,typically phony and basically soulless artists, many of - [PRETTY POISON 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/pretty-poison-2/) - On Willets Point Avenue in Queens there is a particularly large area of waste material in an area with no city services and no roads, that was, and should still be a marsh, considering it's built on soft swampy mud surface that is at sea level, and is not paved or maintained with sewers. - [PRETTY POISON 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/pretty-poison-1/) - In the Willets Point section of Queens, toxins mix with garbage and someone's dentures, in area where the shops were closed on 2013, and then demolished. - [PREDICTION SOCCER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/prediction-soccer/) - In a toxic marsh, left after all the slavage yards and auto shops had been demolished, lie the remnants of Joe Zoklosk's art installation, a soccer ball, mirror reflecting Citi Field , abd, my book, Art & Gentrification. Three years later, to many surprised people, it was decided an 800 million dollar soccer stadium will be - [PREACH FOR THE REAL](https://realstill.com/epigrams/preach-for-the-real/) - Showing up to preach and carry a sign at 55th and Kinsman/Woodland takes guts. It's considered to be the most viloent and dangerous places in one of the most violent and dangerous sections of the city. Kinda like returning to the scene of the crime and repenting for past similar crimes, while chastising and tempting - [PRAYER TREE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/prayer-tree/) - On the Lakota Reservation on Red Mountain Table, a prayer tree in twilight . - [PRAYER FOR THE SUBWAYS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/prayer-for-the-subways/) - The S shuttle in Mnahattan in the eighties. - [POTHOLE TRIBUTE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/pothole-tribute/) - In East Cleveland on Superior Avenue, a collection of debris from simply driiving the city's roads, is displayed. - [POST RUINS ARCHITECTURE 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/post-ruins-architecture-2/) - In the Catskills a former resort descends into its own organic descent in 2019. - [POST RUINS ARCHITECTURE 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/post-ruins-architecture-1/) - Built as a ruin, it's what millenials want, a tourist destination, without history, but "cool" - It's a replica of the 123 year old Euclid Avenue Congregational Church, struck by lighning in March, 2010, butted up against the very contemporary Cleveland Clinic. While visiting different departments for my health care, when i was in rooms - [PORTRAIT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/portrait/) - While shooting the building in the background, i was talking to one guy, when another guy showed up and we all got to talking. This is what's left from our encounter. His name is Mike. The guy i initially was hanging out with lives behind the building and pays 350 a month. He works in - [PORCH PITS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/porch-pits/) - They were particularly aggressive, and, it seemed that might poune from the second floor porch. They say that pit bulls with wings have been seen close by. - [POLISH LIVES MATTER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/polish-lives-matter/) - Along East 93rd Street, in a neighborhood that was once the largest Slovak enclave outside of Europe, a local deli sells ghetto specialties. - [PLANT WISDOM 3](https://realstill.com/epigrams/plant-wisdom-3/) - At an entrance to the Interlake Steel Plant on Chicago's south side, 1980. - [PLANT WISDOM 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/plant-wisdom-2/) - The bristlecone pines are the oldest of all living trees. This one is high in the White Mountains of California around 10,000 feet in elevation. It's unique and dense grain, a fair reflection of its harsh environment, so high up, there are no other living things to interfere, compete or infect the tree. - [PLANT WISDOM](https://realstill.com/epigrams/plant-wisdom/) - Bethlehem Steel, Lackawanna, Coke Plant, Coal Crusher Mill. - [PICTURES REQUEST](https://realstill.com/epigrams/pictures-request/) - In the Beaver Heights neighborhood, i get another request for photographic services. - [PIANO DISGRACE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/piano-disgrace/) - Inside a church on Eas131st Street in Cleveland, a piano has become party central for the local alchoholics - [PHONEY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/phoney/) - [PHILOSOPHY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/philosophy/) - Got one? - [PERFECTION 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/perfection-2/) - Perfection takes maintanaince, otherwise the random chaotic laws of the universe will enroach. The Turners were an ethnic German athletic society and this was displayed on one of their East 55th Street buidings that didn't survive and is gone. The plaque was saved and they hung it on their remaining building on East 55th at Harlem - [PERFECTION](https://realstill.com/epigrams/perfection/) - © 1981 RealStill Perfection, Fullerton Ave., Chicago, 1981 - possible with objects, the grandest being architecture, industry and infrastructure. - [PEDRO'S APOLOGY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/pedros-apology/) - In April, 2016, Pedro Rodriguez shakes the hand of Robert Roche, an American Indian and community activist. This was a big deal, because of what happened in 2014. It went viral and went national, and of course was a nasty thing for Pedro to go through, and, I believe, that the publicity from that convinced the owner - [PAY UP 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/pay-up-2/) - © 1995 RealStill The window of a skid row hotel in Portland Oregon. - [PAY UP 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/pay-up-1/) - Legends, Tommy TwoShoes & Johnnie Esposito at his butcher shop on Mulberry Street. "I got a claculator, but i add real good, capish?" - [PAY PHONE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/pay-phone/) - The era of the pay phone will be dead in the future" - Taylor Swift. 1989 - [PAULIE'S HOME](https://realstill.com/epigrams/paulies-home/) - Paulie Capobianco's home doubled as the House of St. Cono. Here, in his living room, is the actaul shrine of St. Cono. The women are present because it's the Feast of St. Cono, a major sub-feast, effecting a couple of blocks at the edge of the old Italian section. Otherwise Paulie lived there alone on - [PALLISADE REAL ESTATE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/pallisade-real-estate/) - On Elm Street in Yonkers the old Pallisade Agency has become real estate for sale it. - [PAGAN-CHRISTIAN](https://realstill.com/epigrams/pagan-christian/) - Saint Jerome church in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx began as a predominantly Irish parish. By the 1960s many Puerto Ricans had moved into the neighborhood, and then, by 2000 many Mexican families began to find a home here. Saint Jerome church is now largely Mexican. On the side entrance along East 138th St. an Aztec figure has been - [ORNATE WINDOW](https://realstill.com/epigrams/ornate-window/) - [ORNAMENTAL DISGRACE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/ornamental-disgrace/) - In Chicago in 1982 a terra cotta pedestal supports an ornamental dog, beer can in its mouth. - [ORIGINAL PULLMAN ADMINISTRATION BUILDING](https://realstill.com/epigrams/original-pullman-administration-building/) - This was the original Pullman buiding, shot in 1981, that was torched by an arsonist in 1998. The company closed in 1969, and Amtrak bought the site, where it made and repaired rail cars until 1982. - [ORE BOAT TRIBUTE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/ore-boat-tribute/) - At the Harbor Inn, in the Flats, in Cleveland, a home-made tribute to the Great Lakes ore boat. These boats still run up the Cuyahoga River, three blocks from the bar, to the steel mills, to drop off iron ore. - [OPEN PIT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/open-pit/) - Open pit rib-cookin at Hot Sauce Williams at East 79th Street. Willie is the cook and this is the last night. - [OPEN DOORS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/open-doors/) - The J train in Brooklyn over Broadway Avenue awaits a signal in 1986. - [ONE TICKET LEFT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/one-ticket-left/) - From inside the ticket booth of the Selwyn Theatre on 42nd Street, "A single admission is all we have left, and you can't come back tomorrow." - [ON THE OTHER HAND](https://realstill.com/epigrams/on-the-other-hand/) - There's always another alternative. - [OLD MEDIA](https://realstill.com/epigrams/old-media/) - Broadway between West 28th Street and West 27th Street, 2005. - [ODDCHITECTURE 4](https://realstill.com/epigrams/oddchitecture-4/) - On East 86th Street in the Hough section of Cleveland a man's home is dedinitley his castel., - [ODDCHITECTURE 3](https://realstill.com/epigrams/oddchitecture-3/) - On Coit Road in East Cleveland. - [ODDCHITECTURE 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/oddchitecture-2/) - In East Cleveland on Rosiland Avenue a bungalow is enhanced by columns, a front porch and unusual dormers. - [NOT REALLY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/not-really/) - This sign has been in this condition for 12 years and still is today. On a street level, it can only be seen as satircal. - [NORTH TENTH STREET, WILLIAMSBURG, 1986](https://realstill.com/epigrams/north-tenth-street-williamsburg-1986/) - One block from my home, these two story railroad flats had garages on the street with the more traditional eight flat railroad apartments in the background. - [NO TRESPASSING 2005](https://realstill.com/epigrams/no-trespassing-2005/) - A sign posted on a tree in Pennsylvania very far out into the mountains, reflecting the new directness and honesty of our times, combined with humor, unfiltered for these unique times. - [NO TRESPASSING 1980](https://realstill.com/epigrams/no-trespassing-1980/) - In 1980 at the corner of West 67th Street and Detroit Avenue, it's a question best left untouched. - [NO PLACE, LIKE BUFFALO](https://realstill.com/epigrams/no-place-like-buffalo/) - The bar is in Buffalo out by the old Pierce-Arrow car works. Enough said. - [NO JOKE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/no-joke/) - One of the many billboards that sprung up in 2016 for the RNC, and very prophetic. - [NO DRUGS - LES](https://realstill.com/epigrams/no-drugs-les/) - In 1986 this is the hired security for a building along East Ninth Strret beween Avenue C and Tompkins Square Park. - [NO CHOICE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/no-choice/) - It's a job. - [NINO'S SHOP](https://realstill.com/epigrams/ninos-shop/) - Nino's muffler shop, Willets Point, Queens, 2013, the year it closed. Unfortunately Nino's shop located close to Citi Field was part of the 23 acres the city sold to Related Peoperies for onr dollar. Nino had been there 28 years, and, after arriving from Peru, he supported a family and home with his business. In - [NIGHT FOR DAY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/night-for-day/) - In cinema, particularly in the 50s, the day-for-night technique, using gross underexposure of the negative, was ustilized, for various reasons, in many films. Night-for-day shooting flips that around, although the flipping has nothing to do with any intent, beyond shooting very long exposures at night. This shot was taken at midnight utilizing an exposure of ninety minutes - [NEVER ENUFF](https://realstill.com/epigrams/never-enuff/) - The never Enuff Fishing Corporation van on Astoria Boulevard. ""Let's Go Fishing!" - [NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH](https://realstill.com/epigrams/neighborhood-watch/) - On East 52nd Street near Cleveland's Industrial Valley, locals deal with the crazy drug scene. - [NEIGHBORHOOD EXECUTION](https://realstill.com/epigrams/neighborhood-execution/) - In an alley, just of Colonial Court Street, a ritualistic execution, the beheading of a sports inifidel, is captured just before the moment of truth. The offense? It was the first meeting of the Warriors and Cavaliers in the NBA championship game of 2014, and the victim had commented that he thought the Cavs weren't ready yet to beat - [NEIGHBORHOOD ELECTROCUTION 4](https://realstill.com/epigrams/neighborhood-electrocution-4/) - Another successful neighborhood electrocution brought to you by the handiwork of Byron Kelley who mage the electric hair in his basement. - [NEIGHBORHOOD ELECTROCUTION 3](https://realstill.com/epigrams/neighborhood-electrocution-3/) - RealStill whose money is where it's mouth is, participates in what is represented, and the jolt of a neighborhood electrocution also helps eleveate one from the often dreary surroundings. - [NEIGHBORHOOD ELECTROCUTION 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/neighborhood-electrocution-2/) - One of the owners of the chair, Queen Delores, after her treatments. - [NEIGHBORHOOD ELECTROCUTION 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/neighborhood-electrocution-1/) - In Cleveland, in certain east side neighborhoods, electrocutions are a fun way to keep order. - [NEIGHBORHOOD COFFIN](https://realstill.com/epigrams/neighborhood-coffin/) - Ya never know what you'll find in one of Tim Willis' vehicles on East 83rd Street in Cleveland. - [NARROW DRIVEWAY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/narrow-driveway/) - Looking up from the center of Mr. Daniels' driveway. Why so narrow? The homes were built when the "drive" was more an alley providing access to the stables in the back. Original asbestos shingles covers the original wood clapboard. The home is gone. - [MUTANT TREES 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/mutant-trees-1/) - The Forgotten Tiangle section of Cleveland, what looks like a willow tree, has been bent and contorted into this shape. In the background a rapid transit car moves towards downtown. The Triangle is now (2022) a thing of the past. Not only has everything disapppeared from a long organic descent, but what's left suffers from - [MUSEUM-PROOF](https://realstill.com/epigrams/museum-proof/) - Too art for documentary and too documentary for art. It's precisely where you want, and don't want to be. But there is something bigger, more important here about proof and art. - [MURRAY SPACE SHOE COMPANY 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/murray-space-shoe-company-2/) - The other window of the Murray Space Company. I would pass by these windows on my way to work in Long Island city all the time. - [MR. DANIEL'S SHOES](https://realstill.com/epigrams/mr-daniels-shoes/) - Mr. Daniels, one of many friends i watched continually finding a way to keep going on all levels. Mr. Daniels liked to walk, his home on Arthur Avenue always the starting point. - [MR. DANIELS' DRIVEWAY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/mr-daniels-driveway/) - Mr. Daniels' driveway is uselss, even for his small toyota because it was built when horses needed a passage to the back stables. - [MONEY & DRUGS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/money-drugs/) - No caption needed. - [MINGO PAINTING](https://realstill.com/epigrams/mingo-painting/) - The painting of downtown Mingo Junction, complete with a Mingo Indian, adorns the city hall and police department lobby. - [MILL ENTRANCE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/mill-entrance/) - It's 2002 and about all that's left of Bethlehem Steel's Johnstown Plant are some things like this sign. It's up by the old hot end where the furnaces were. My best friend's parents were celebrating their fiftieth wedding anniversary about a mile away, so i thought about grabbing the shot before hitting the family celebration. Unfortunately - [METAL SHAVINGS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/metal-shavings/) - At Stahl Gear, an old manufacurer of gears, using an array of machine tools, that date back to 1890. - [MESSAGE, EAST 11TH STREET, LOWER EAST SIDE, 1989](https://realstill.com/epigrams/message-east-11th-street-lower-east-side-1989/) - This was a wild block in the eighties. - [MESSAGE TO A THIEF](https://realstill.com/epigrams/message-to-a-thief/) - In an industrial section of old Greenpoint, a worker has posted a message. - [MEN PEE LIKE KINGS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/men-pee-like-kings/) - Ninth floor men's room urinals in the United Bank Building at West 25th Street and Lorain Avenue, built in 1925. This was the golden age of bank buildings, and grandeur was part of the message, including the bathrooms on all floors. - [MEMORIAL TO THE PEOPLE'S CAR](https://realstill.com/epigrams/memorial-to-the-peoples-car/) - The buses pay homage to the Bug. - [McCHALES BAR 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/mcchales-bar-2/) - A guy stands outside McHale's bar at West 46th Street and Eighth Avenue, a block from Times Square. It was my favorite bar in Manhattan, and closed soon after this shot which was taken in October, 2005. - [McCHALES BAR 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/mcchales-bar-1/) - Bar at West 46th Street and Eighth Avenue, closed permanently in 2005. - [MAYA'S PHOTO STUDIO](https://realstill.com/epigrams/mayas-photo-studio/) - On East 131st Street, the dos and don'ts of this business is made clear, before entering. - [MARXIST CALPITALISTS/CAPITAILIST/MARXIST](https://realstill.com/epigrams/marxist-calpitalists-capitailist-marxist/) - I get it. When the majority disagrees with you and you are completely awash in your own politics, performance art becomes a choice for political action. Whether it be wearing a gas mask in Congress, kneeling in reverence, storming the capital, or any number of acts, - [MAPLE LANES](https://realstill.com/epigrams/maple-lanes/) - A manual four lane bowling alley sits off the barroom in the old Slovenian neighborhood on St. Clair in 2009. - [MANY SIGNS ON A POLE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/many-signs-on-a-pole/) - Many opportunities available in East Cleveland. - [MAN PLANT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/man-plant/) - At Untmeyer Park in North Yonkers, a man sits next to a plant, or, a plant stands next to a sitting man, depending on your poit of view. - [MAKE IT THROUGH THE DAY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/make-it-through-the-day/) - In the junkyards in Queens, a touch of weed gets you through the day. - [MAKE IT LAST FOREVER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/make-it-last-forever/) - Norman, flicks up the Multi-Talented Perfrormer From Brooklyn on West 46th Street, just around the corner from Times Square, in 1989. - [MAGA MAN FOR RENT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/maga-man-for-rent/) - At Made in Bodega on E. 141st St. in Mott Haven, Tuna, the owner, has a side gig renting out the Maga Patriot Man for events. Maga Man will stand stock still for two hours. The charge is $2000. Maga Man, will also mingle with your crowd at your event. The charge is $5000. Color - [LUDWIG'S CHESS SET](https://realstill.com/epigrams/ludwigs-chess-set/) - [LUDWIG'S ANVIL](https://realstill.com/epigrams/ludwigs-anvil/) - [LOWER HUDSON VALLEY WATERFALL 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/lower-hudson-valley-waterfall-2/) - A nice surprise, to get just past peak fall color and a snowstorm, and that it's the Bronx. - [LOWER HUDSON VALLEY WATERFALL](https://realstill.com/epigrams/lower-hudson-valley-waterfall/) - You would think this might be the Hudson Highlands or the Ramapo Mountains, but it's the Bronx after a rare snowstorm in early November just after peak fall color. - [LOVE DEATH HATE LIFE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/love-death-hate-life/) - Ivy, East 75th Street (2010) While shooting an abandoned apartment building, that, over a period of ten years of no maintenance, was covered in ivy, i was visited by a girl who lived directly across the street... Love Death Hate Life, East 75th Street (2010) ...she let me shoot her tattoos. What do you think - [LOST STREET](https://realstill.com/epigrams/lost-street/) - 37th Avenue, Queens, which provided acess into the Junkyards, and to Willets Point Avenue ceased to exist in 2019, after all the shops and junkyards were demolished and the brownfield remediated. An 800 million dollar soccer stadium will open here in 2025. - [LOOSE MONEY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/loose-money/) - Sign in the window of Playland in Times Square warning tourists that the only real identification for sale is inside. - [LOOMIS CAMERA](https://realstill.com/epigrams/loomis-camera/) - Loomis Camera, Elyria OH - still in operation in 2009, when the shot was taken, but closed in 2012 after 62 years in business. The shop was always loved and the owner, Howard Foxman's only controversy was a years long fight with the city who disliked his sign protruding from the building which sat on Elyria Square. - [LONE DEMONSTRATOR](https://realstill.com/epigrams/lone-demonstrator/) - [LOAVES & FISH](https://realstill.com/epigrams/loaves-fish/) - At a spillway on the OH/PA border, carp gather to be fed white bread by locals and tourists. - [LIVING IT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/living-it/) - Ernest is one of the best scrappers i have met. He wears the lyrics to a Tupac rap, stiched into his coat. - [LITHUANIAN STORY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/lithuanian-story/) - Lithuanian immigrants, Mr. And Mrs. Antanes Vasis, stand in St. George Church on the last day it was open for its last mass. In the working-class hall of Fame, the “Greatest Generation” came out of the great migrations of working-class people settling in industrial towns and cities of the Northeast and Midwest. Beginning in the - [LIONS' GATE ENTRANCE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/lions-gate-entrance/) - [LION EATS CLOWN](https://realstill.com/epigrams/lion-eats-clown/) - [LINDA'S DOOR, EAST 137TH STREET, MOTT HAVEN](https://realstill.com/epigrams/lindas-door-east-137th-street-mott-haven/) - [LIGHT BULB TRIBUTE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/light-bulb-tribute/) - In East Cleveland, in an empty lot, a patriotic tribute to the lightbulb has been created. East Cleveland had general electric lightbulb manufacturing plants within its city limits, beginning with Nela Park which was America's first industrial campus housing offices and research facilities. Across the street from Nela Park on Euclid Avenue was a large light - [LIBERTY DANCE 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/liberty-dance-2/) - [LIBERTY DANCE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/liberty-dance/) - Liberty Tax encourages its demonstrators to dance and show enthusiasm. They are called "wavers" and they appear only at tax season. With all the political correctness in the air, it's important to see clearly. Even i see the humiliation/exploitation that makes any sort of billboarding stick out, who am i to say what's really going - [LEMOYNE BOY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/lemoyne-boy/) - LeMoyne Street on Chicago's West Side. 1981. - [LEAP OF FAITH](https://realstill.com/epigrams/leap-of-faith/) - In the Junkyards in Queens, known for its flooding and lack of sewers and infrastructure, a man leaps to the next skid. - [LAST DAYS OF JOHN MARSHALL 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/last-days-of-john-marshall-2/) - John Marshall High School band uniforms after the school was closed for demo. A new school was built, but cannot replace the moderne structure it replaced. The school must have a strong alumni, as it was the only school out of twenty-five that were closed in 2010, that allowed for an open house weekend for - [LAST DAYS AT JOHN MARSHALL 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/last-days-at-john-marshall-1/) - John Marshall High School closed in 2010. It was a part of a wave of 25 school closures, with many demolitions. The high school was large and tight-knit and was the only school scheduled for closing to allow a final look at the place, which was a large mid-century modern structure that bit the dust. - [LAST DAYS AT EMPIRE SCHOOL](https://realstill.com/epigrams/last-days-at-empire-school/) - The students in the last classes at old Empire School, were allowed to write their feelings and sentiments on the walls. The school was one of twent-five that were closed in 2099-2010. There were quite a few significant structures and most were demolished, but Empire and Longfellow on East 140th Street still stand empty. - [LAND OF LOSS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/land-of-loss/) - On East 103rd Street in Glenville, the prescription for loss. - [LACK OF CELEBRITY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/lack-of-celebrity/) - They were a very notrious Chicago street gang, and, contrary to their name, were known for swift and accurate murders, many going to the top echelon of enemy gangs. Their murals and street art were amongst the best in the city of gangs. The shot was taken in 1982. - [KOOL MAVERICK](https://realstill.com/epigrams/kool-maverick/) - Maclom X amongst cigarette ads on Yale Ave. & East 99th Street, at what folks in this town call a typical "A-rab" store that sells, let's face it, a lot of unhealthy stuff, while sharing the same religion as some black Americans, like Malcom X. - [KLEIN'S](https://realstill.com/epigrams/kleins/) - Klein's radiator Service has been closed for some time, and was demolished in 2021. - [KINGSBRIDGE HEIGHTS, KINGSBRIDGE RD. BBQ](https://realstill.com/epigrams/kingsbridge-heights-kingsbridge-rd-bbq/) - In Kingsbridge Heights the message is straight and to the point. - [KING OF KINGS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/king-of-kings/) - In the Bridgeport section of South Chicago, a resident has some earthly priorities. - [KILLING IS OUR LIVING](https://realstill.com/epigrams/killing-is-our-living/) - The dichotomy of human nature and existence as expressed on the West Side of Chicago in 1982. - [KEWPEE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/kewpee/) - Lima Ohio is the Kewpee headquarters and this is their first restaraunt from 1928. Lima is closely associated with the brand, but it started in 1926 in Michigan. When it opened in 1928 Lima it became very popular. For the first time you could walk up, and for a nickel, get a quick burger to go or to - [JUNKYARD WATERS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/junkyard-waters/) - 33rd Avenue in the Iron Triangle section of Queens was flood-prone. Bicycles and planks set on tires kept workers dry, like Marcall, on the planks, who actually worked in the closed salvage yard behind him, and found work in another shop. Today, though he's a mechanic in Manhattan, and that's really rare. - [JUNKYARD SHOWER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/junkyard-shower/) - "Nacho" - [JUNKYARD GLASS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/junkyard-glass/) - A man carries a windshield. Everthing imaginable to fix cars is there, in the Junkyards of Queens. - [JUNKYARD FIREWORKS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/junkyard-fireworks/) - Three times each season the Mets have Fireworks Nights, although the knuckleheads out in the junkyards are pretty unware of it, it's a nice diversion. Everything on this street is gone today, awaiting eventual redevelopment. - [JOSEPH HARWORTH GRAVE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/joseph-harworth-grave/) - Mr. Hawotrth was a renowned American actor more than a century ago. He dide in his fiftiers, congestive haeart failure, perhaps broughht on by a full acting schedule and too much work. - [JO JO DELIO](https://realstill.com/epigrams/jo-jo-delio/) - JoJo, the drummer for the Brooklyn Sym-Phoney poses with his neighbors on Driggs Avenue during our annual Feast. America, in its blue-collar heydays, manufactured characters, and nowhere was more character-rich than Willimaburg, Brooklyn whose blocks bulged with personalities. https://vimeo.com/27120327 https://historicgreenpoint.wordpress.com/2014/04/26/the-dodger-sym-phony-band/ - [JERSEY PERSPECTIVE 6](https://realstill.com/epigrams/jersey-perspective-6/) - A home-made, xeroxed response to 9/11, days after the atacks. The sheet was taped to the window of a car always in the Skyway Diner underneath the Pulaksi Skyway in Newark. - [JERSEY PERSPECTIVE 5](https://realstill.com/epigrams/jersey-perspective-5/) - In Newark the old Pabst brewing plant is being demolished. The water tank was a functioning 55,000 gallon water tank and beer landmark since 1945 when Pabst purchased the plant from Hoffman Beverages which modeled the tank on their ginger ale product. Pabst closed in the eighties but the tank hung on until 2006 before demolition. The tank - [JERSEY PERSPECTIVE 4](https://realstill.com/epigrams/jersey-perspective-4/) - Along Tonnelle Avenue a car hood ad beckons prospective workers. - [JERSEY PERSPECTIVE 3](https://realstill.com/epigrams/jersey-perspective-3/) - Inside the Campbell Foundry in Harrison, workers created art installations celebrating the fact that their foundry is still operating. The foundry which manufactured sewer caps for municpalities throughout America, closed in 2006. - [JERSEY PERSPECTIVE 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/jersey-perspective-2/) - In Cartert, New Jersey, the old crt television sets remain for sale or repair in 1999. The owner of the store was the wrestleing coach at Carteret High School. I went into his shop, to talk, and let him know i was going to shoot his window. Before i got to that, through, in the course - [JERSEY PERSPECTIVE 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/jersey-perspective-1/) - Just days after 9/11, along the Hackensack River in Kearny, an abanondoned pleasure boat is tagged to tease the armed forces of the Taliban. - [JAPANESE MAPLE 4](https://realstill.com/epigrams/japanese-maple-4/) - Looks like a viridis, many people's favorite type of Japanese Maple, it's structure might be more beautiful than its leaves. - [JAPANESE MAPLE 3](https://realstill.com/epigrams/japanese-maple-3/) - [JAPANESE MAPLE 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/japanese-maple-2/) - [JAPANESE MAPLE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/japanese-maple/) - A Japanese Maple at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, makes quite a fall statement. Acer Palmatum is native to Korea and Japan and can grow in many other places. Technically a shrub, the Japanese Maple is highly symbolic - calm, tranquility and practicality come to mind. The Japanese phrase "momiki-gari" translates to "maple viewing" or "maple - [IVY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/ivy/) - Boston ivy is not ivy, but a vine, and it originated in Japan. Its proliferation in Boston began a close association with its universities. - [IT'S A JOB](https://realstill.com/epigrams/its-a-job/) - Logo on work shirt worn by James Baker on his front lawn on Superior Avenue. - [IT'S 2016, BEFORE EXTREME POLARIZATION 4](https://realstill.com/epigrams/its-2016-before-extreme-polarization-4/) - A typically American event where protestors and performers from both sides, and all sides, the media and law enforcement all showed up in equal numbers. Nothing really happened, as would not be the case upon the dethroning of the New Leader, when tensions grew and climaxed on January 6, 2021. - [IT'S 2016, BEFORE EXTREME POLARIZATION 3](https://realstill.com/epigrams/its-2016-before-extreme-polarization-3/) - Opposing sides mingling freely amongst themselves, with thousands of law enforcement, just out of view, during the convention. A scene that, after the election of the Leader, would never happen again. - [IT'S 2016, BEFORE EXTREME POLARIZATION 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/its-2016-before-extreme-polarization-2/) - Looking at this from the perspective of 2020, this couldn't happen. By this time the entire country just lost its sense of humor. Misinformation exploded as culture and info wars became truer than ever, lived out in the climactic storming of the Capitol on January, 6, 2021. Who would have thought that in 2016, when a lone - [IT'S 2016, BEFORE EXTREME POLARIZATION 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/its-2016-before-extreme-polarization-1/) - Before 2016 the "info and culture wars" largely produced by commercial news outlets, whose bottom line is profits not truth, had already been injecting fuel into divisions and then cultivating them. Before four years of Trump in office, these divisions, in reality, were often expressed in very socially acceptable and almost friendly manner prior to the election in - [IT TOOK GUTS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/it-took-guts/) - In Cleveland, on May 2, 2010, Bishop Lennon stands outside Sacred Heart of Jesus Church as parishioners leave a mass that he was part of. The church had always been a Polish parish, that went back to a time when every neighborhood and every ethnicity in that neighborhood had their own church, to the extent that - [IS THERE ANY OTHER KIND? 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/is-there-any-other-kind-2/) - A wall along Broadway Avenue in Cleveland. - [IS THERE ANY OTHER KIND?](https://realstill.com/epigrams/is-there-any-other-kind/) - Hand-made lettering on a bank building on E. 93rd St. has been transformed into a convenience store and drive-through and also a used appliance store. - [IS THE CITY LISTENING?](https://realstill.com/epigrams/is-the-city-listening/) - On the Grand Concourse, one of the old synagogues, turned into a Baptist church, has this to say. - [IS THAT PHOTOSHOPED?](https://realstill.com/epigrams/is-that-photoshoped/) - Why is the answer to that question important? By being there so much more is learned about the place being shot. Jets taking off make far more noise taking off than landing, the direction takeoffs and landings are determined by wind direction and the the planes land and take of every ninety seconds. Obviusly isf - [IRON TRIANGLE ICON DEMO](https://realstill.com/epigrams/iron-triangle-icon-demo/) - © 2017 RealStill The Feinstein Iron Works on Willets Point Avenue is demolished to create a gentrified landscape of retail, condos and apartments, coincidentally, next to Citi Field. During the Bloomberg years 23 acres of city land, leased to immigrant workers of all stripes since the 1930s, was sold for one dollar to Related - [INVISIBLE MAN SYMPATHIZER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/invisible-man-sympathizer/) - On East 94th Street the Kelly family apartment has become a welcome refuge for the Invisible Man. - [INSIDE UPPER KAATERSKILL FALLS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/inside-upper-kaaterskill-falls/) - The lure of an unsual four inches of rain and fall color brought me to this point, and the chance the sun would show up. We cannot hear the falls or feel the soaking water, allowing for the relaxed concentration of a picture. - [INDUSTRIAL ADDICTIONS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/industrial-addictions/) - Basic ingredients for chocolate on an industrial scale. Like tobacco, it's the Native's revenge, since sugar, cocoa and cigarretes have killed so many, including Natives. - [INDIANS & TOBACCO](https://realstill.com/epigrams/indians-tobacco/) - Chicago's west side, 1980, when using Indian imagery to sell tobacco was still common. It's one way that Indians have been acknowledged for their discoveries in the plant world. Whiskey, guns and horses were introduced to the Native population while tobacco, potatoes and furs were introduced to the settlers. Tobacco, of course, would become an enormous health - [IMPACT MURDER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/impact-murder/) - Lesandro 'Junior' Guzman-Feliz was murdered here. I walked over there the day of his funeral and found, by far, the largest memorial display i've seen, reflecting the deep impact this murder made because of the bare facts, but also the presence of high def cameras capturing everything. - [IF YOUR RECLUSIVE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/if-your-reclusive/) - It's reclusive in the sense that no one will visit you if you move there from another borough. - [IF DON RICKLES OWNED A BALL CLUB](https://realstill.com/epigrams/if-don-rickles-owned-a-ball-club/) - At the Chief Wahoo protest in 2015, what's fair is fair. - [ICE FORMATION](https://realstill.com/epigrams/ice-formation/) - Freshwater ice coats the breakwalls and warning markers on Lake Erie. - [I DON'T SEE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/i-dont-see/) - In Willet's Point, a couple sells food, drink and supplies to the workers of the Iron Trinagle. "Mariachi" became blind in a Newark New Jersey factory, when another worker opened fire with a gun. As you can see, his partner can see very well. - [HYACINTH OF POLAND](https://realstill.com/epigrams/hyacinth-of-poland/) - In 2009 Saint Hyacinth was shut down. It was one of 30 ethnic churches in Cleveland that were closed, between 2009 and 2010, many of the churches were Polish. The statute of Saint Hyacinth is set above the altar. If you notice Saint Hyacinth's hands are always full. The main group of Polish immigrants was located around East 55th and - [HUNGARIAN FLAG](https://realstill.com/epigrams/hungarian-flag/) - In 2009 the Cleveland Diocese decided to close many parishes and churches, all of them ethnic. One of these churches was the Hungarian St. Emeric. It was closed and on the day of the last Mass and gathering, the church reamined filled, after the services, as people didn't want to go. People brought their flags - [HUDSON RIVER CEMETERY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/hudson-river-cemetery/) - Trinity Cemetery in upper aManhattan in 2015. - [HOWARD & HOME-MADE BIKE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/howard-home-made-bike/) - Howard was cruising Superior Avenue when i took this shot. - [HOUSING GROWTH](https://realstill.com/epigrams/housing-growth/) - In Miss Burke's backyard an in-law house is there, but pretty much forgotten, emblematic of an ingrown city, perhaps too native for its own good. - [HOUSE SIGN](https://realstill.com/epigrams/house-sign/) - House Steet is one block long and located in the tiny Willow neighborhood off Broadway in Cleveland. Half the houses are long gone, but the block is still lively, if mostly gone. - [HOUSE MANAGER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/house-manager/) - Enough said. - [HOME-MADE UMBRELLA & OUTDDO0R FURNITURE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/home-made-umbrella-outddo0r-furniture/) - Along East 103rd Street in Cleveland, the umbrella system is made of a tree branch and various auto parts, weighted by a tire. Chairs, card table and flag round out the ensemble. - [HOME-MADE SIGN 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/home-made-sign-1/) - 2009, Cleveland, East 71st & Central Avenue. - [HOME-MADE PATIO](https://realstill.com/epigrams/home-made-patio/) - [HOME-MADE ELDERLY TRIBUTE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/home-made-elderly-tribute/) - On East 49th Street in Cleveland folks get real about being old and handicapped with symbolic imagery created by themselves without art training. - [HOME SWEET HOME](https://realstill.com/epigrams/home-sweet-home/) - Flag, dog, porch and dish - it's the American dream in East Cleveland. or, as they said when i was a young man in 1972. - [HOME MADE CHURCH](https://realstill.com/epigrams/home-made-church/) - On Central Avenue a home has been converted into a church by Reverend Williams, who lives three doors down. - [HOME IMPROVEMENT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/home-improvement/) - [HIP HOP PATRIOT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/hip-hop-patriot/) - It's true that many folks in the Black criminal and entertainment industries support Trump, not recently, but going back to the 1990s during his Manhattan playboy, casino-owner, reality tv star years. Kardashians convinced Trump to pardon some felonious folks, then turned on him by voting for Biden. Amongst those that did get pardoned by Trump - [HILLBILLY JOOSE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/hillbilly-joose/) - The ad is still fading today from a time when Joe Columbo, of all people, was associated with political correctness. Although, the Hillbillies remain the one group it's ok to slam, and they themselves enjoy and recount the jokes about them better than anyone, i'm sure that'slost on the PC and IP crowds. Never achieving the socially/politically protected status - [HIGH-TECH SIGNAGE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/high-tech-signage/) - The Azman & Sons Meat Market displays the current prices on Slovenian products. - [HERE TODAY, GONE TODAY 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/here-today-gone-today-2/) - The author in 1980, where the Jefferson Avenue swing bridge was located. The Rust Belt didn't take it out. It was a freighter that rammed it because it wasn't opened, in 1952. To the left is the B&O #463 jacknife lift bridge, soon to be demolished. To the left of the bridge was a Gulf - [HERE TODAY, GONE TODAY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/here-today-gone-today/) - It ain't the 1980s anymore, never will be. It's not that things change, it's things change quicker than ever, and, without much thought. - [HELL'S HALF-ACRE 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/hells-half-acre-2/) - Looking out the door of my motel room at Hell's Half Acre. The closest one could stay to genuine badland territory, being set into the badlands themselves, next to a state highway west of Casper in the middle of nowhere. - [HELL'S HALF ACRE 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/hells-half-acre-1/) - It was the complete package of the bust-out variety - bar, restaraunt and motel, all situated, essentially in one of America's great badlands. It's an island, 40 miles west of Casper, a badlands working-class oasis, and the only place you will find all this convenience set in the badlands themselves, and at really reasonable prices. At - [HE USUALLY GETS IN FREE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/he-usually-gets-in-free/) - Opening day every year, he dresses to to get in, and he does. - [HARLEM RIVER VALLEY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/harlem-river-valley/) - The Harlem River Valley - Harlem River, Inwood, the Cloisters and the Palisades in the distance. - [HARLEM RIVER SPEEDWAY VIEWING PLATFORM](https://realstill.com/epigrams/harlem-river-speedway-viewing-platform/) - The structure sits between the Alexander Hamilton Bridge and the Wasington Bridge just above the Lower Harlem River Drive and below the Upper Harlem River Drive. Above it was a large building that looked down on the Speedway that is now the Harlem River Drive. - [HARLEM RIVER SCENE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/harlem-river-scene/) - [HARLEM RIVER HOME-MADE PIER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/harlem-river-home-made-pier/) - In November, 2023, two fishing buddies throw their lines into the Harlem River at the 207th Street Bridge to the left and the MTA Inwood yards to the right. Behind them new apartments are being constructed, part of a huge building boom in Inwood, because zoning from industrial to residential, along the river ha passed. - [HARD FACING 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/hard-facing-2/) - When i learned that the facility was sold and was to be torn down, i wanted another shot at it. I had just broke my wrist on a location at 2:00 am on New Year's Day, 2024, still recovering from surgery and chemo. Today Cleveland Hard Facing, the building, is gone. But for we, of - [HARD FACING](https://realstill.com/epigrams/hard-facing/) - I had been meaning to grab these shots for about 40 years, deep in the steel mill section of the city. Finally in 2020 I decided to spend time doing getting that done. While there, I thought about, for instance, the reason why it took so long. One reason is that I didn't want - [HARBOR INN, THE FLATS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/harbor-inn-the-flats/) - A detail inside the Harbor Inn, located in the Flats, Cleveland. - [HANGOVERS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/hangovers/) - Lost in the flat, level, badlands of industry, port infrastructure and Newark International Airport, is this Newark Bar, where, what you see is what you get. I can't, for the life of me, remember where this joint was specifically. - [HANDS UP COPPERS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/hands-up-coppers/) - The tables haven't been turned, they are holding up the side of a food trailer at the Feast in Williiamsburg, Brooklyn in 1986. Just for fun, i patted them down after i took the shot. - [HAND-MADE WARNING](https://realstill.com/epigrams/hand-made-warning/) - On Addison Road, a Croation resident, Mario, has welded his warning in steel. It will last for centuries, after the old Croation man's death, a master millwright and welder with many years at major automobile plants. When i took the picture in 2020, mario was 88 years old, living in a camper, fenced in and - [HAND-MADE TRUCK SIGN](https://realstill.com/epigrams/hand-made-truck-sign/) - On Holton Avenue an original home-made sign marks the Inner City truck repair shop. - [HAND-MADE STEEL ROBOT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/hand-made-steel-robot/) - [HAND OF THE WORKING MAN](https://realstill.com/epigrams/hand-of-the-working-man/) - All blue-collar folks get hurt at work. As a fact of life, it's overcome. - [HALLOWEEN DISPLAY 3](https://realstill.com/epigrams/halloween-display-3/) - Proving once more that every day in Cleveland is Halloween, is a permanent dosplay of ghoulishness, not actually connected to Hallowee. It's the back alley of behind his home, he emerged from his garage in the alley. i surprised him and he casually did the Cleveland thing an drew a gun. I non-verbally confused and convinced him not to - [HALLOWEEN DISPLAY 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/halloween-display-2/) - This guy had a range of year-round diplays and signs around his home, but this one was for Halloween. On the east side of Cleveland, every day is Halloween. During one cold January morning i was shooting in the alley behind his home, He opened his garage door, and, i guess, i surprised him, and - [HALLOWEEN DISPLAY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/halloween-display/) - Homemade Halloween Display, Page Ave., East Cleveland. Picture was shot in 2011, by 2016 every apartment building was gone on this block. - [GUN HOMAGE 4](https://realstill.com/epigrams/gun-homage-4/) - An old house attempting to hinder any more property degradation. - [GUN HOMAGE 3](https://realstill.com/epigrams/gun-homage-3/) - And that's what he did - the owner shot someone he thought to be scrapping on his property. Got busted for it and went to prison. Normally it's a city where, if you catch someone in your home, by all means, shoot um, but there are limits to other types of hunting, like lying in wait in a worthless - [GUN HOMAGE 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/gun-homage-2/) - Home, East 38th Street, 1979. - [GUN HOMAGE 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/gun-homage-1/) - The message on Born Avenue is we take care of things here ourselves. - [GUN CITY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/gun-city/) - Enough said would describe the perfect epigram. I could only add background. I was climbing the stairs of one of the remaining buildings from the Chapman Autombile Company on Taft Avenue on the border of Collinwwod and Glenville. Before getting to the top floor, the fifth, a boy lied, sprawled on the stairs, dead. The - [GUN CHILDREN 1983](https://realstill.com/epigrams/gun-children-1983/) - What generation of children in America weren't gun kids, as it probably becomes more ingrained and widespread with each generation. This kid had a toy gun. It's 1983 in front of an abandoned apartment building on his block along East 68th Street in Cleveland. At this time most of the buildings, all residential, were still standing - [GREENPOINT BARBERSHOP](https://realstill.com/epigrams/greenpoint-barbershop/) - col - [GRAND HOTEL ROOM 512 3](https://realstill.com/epigrams/grand-hotel-room-512-3/) - Room 512 had two windows that looked out at downtown Butte, which is called uptown. Often western towns will have an electric sign on a high point with the local school's logo. In this case it's Butte's School of the Mines, as seen between the two churches, The First Baptist and the the First Presbyterian. - [GRAND HOTEL - ROOM #512 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/grand-hotel-room-512-2/) - The nightstand in room #512 at the Grand Hotel in Butte, Montana. - [GRAND HOTEL - ROOM #512 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/grand-hotel-room-512-1/) - Room 512 at the Grand Hotel on West Broadway Street, Butte Montana. Today it's a pre-release center, but for a century it was a hotel. The bus station was across the street, M & M Cafe down the street around the corner, the Fox Movie Theatre was nearby showing one dollar admission films and some great - [GOWANUS SUNSET](https://realstill.com/epigrams/gowanus-sunset/) - The Gowanus Canal from the Carrol Street Bridge, 2004. I see nothing but industry, while others see different. Things are changing signicantly with its clean-up and housing. They saw opportunity. In the backgroind is the old Kentile sign that was eight stories tall and was taken down in 2014, and saved for a future place, but only - [GOWANUS HOMES](https://realstill.com/epigrams/gowanus-homes/) - In 1997, close to the Gowanus Canal, hardly any one lived. It wasn't just the notorious pollution in the canal, but the area was solidly industrial. During the day it was loud and gritty. After retutning home to north Brooklyn, i discovered i had broken my personal record for getting flat tires. The next morning - [GOUVERNOR MORRIS BURIED HERE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/gouvernor-morris-buried-here/) - On the grounds of St. Ann's church on St. Ann's Avenue in Mott Haven, are buried members of the Morris family, both outside on the grounds and beneath the church itself. There's plenty of info on line about this important American character. - [GOTTI 2002](https://realstill.com/epigrams/gotti-2002/) - The entrance to the Bergen Hunt & Fish Club in Ozone Park, Queens on John Gotti's death in June, 2002. - [GO BROWNS 3](https://realstill.com/epigrams/go-browns-3/) - © 2008 RealStill The water tank was along East 152nd Street in Collinwood. The large factory structures were used as warehouse and storage space including flamable and toxic substances. When this shot was taken the complex had caught fire and was abandoned and later demolished. What a lot of people don't know is that this - [GO BROWNS 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/go-browns-2/) - © 2010 RealStill A Woodhill Road dwelling known locally as Top 'O the Hill, and owned by a friend, Clarence, sports a tribute to being a Dawg. - [GO BROWNS 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/go-browns-1/) - An abandoned buiding at Eat 53rd Street and St. Clair Avenue sports a Browns fashion statement with social commentary. - [GHOUL SELFIE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/ghoul-selfie/) - A ghoul shoots his selfie in front of the old rectory for St. George Lithuanian Church on Superior Avenue. A small tornado came through and took out some old growth trees. - [GHETTO ORDER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/ghetto-order/) - The old Willow neighborhood of Cleveland, orders are followed as posted. - [GHETTO LOUNGE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/ghetto-lounge/) - Chicago, Maxwell Street, 1980, straight and to the point. - [GHETTO JESUS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/ghetto-jesus/) - Even in the storefront churches in the poorer sections of the city, Christ is depicted as a Northern European man, and not a North African man, but this might be the exception. - [GHETTO DRIVE-THRU 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/ghetto-drive-thru-2/) - A former bank, now a convenience store, marches on, as a viable business at the corner of East 93rd and Union Avenue, which was originally Irish, then Slovak, one of the largest enclaves outside Europe. - [GHETTO DRIVE-THRU](https://realstill.com/epigrams/ghetto-drive-thru/) - On East 55th Street, various specialties are offered for your culinary enjoyment. - [GELATINA VENDOR](https://realstill.com/epigrams/gelatina-vendor/) - In the Bronx at the corner of East 138th St. and Willis Avenue, in the Mott Haven section, a vendor sells galatina cakes from his home-made cart. - [GAY FOURTH 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/gay-fourth-2/) - I like to shoot the fireworks in New York, with the ESB lit red, white and blue. In 2014 this did not happen. - [GAY FOURTH](https://realstill.com/epigrams/gay-fourth/) - The 2014 Macy's fireworks show in New York was the innaugural of the ESB's new digitaled lighting system. In the years of shooting these firereworks the ESB was always featured in red white and blue colors. This Fourth these colors briefly showed up, but mostly lavenders and pinks were featured. But not red, white and - [GAS STATION MEMORIAL](https://realstill.com/epigrams/gas-station-memorial/) - At an old and last Dyna-Guard station, in the city, on Clark Avenue, the owner has a kind of creative hand not seen at chain and franchise stations. The staion was sold and painted over in 2021. - [GARDEN OF IRONY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/garden-of-irony/) - On Superior Avenue in East Cleveland there is a discrepancy between the landscape and its sign. - [FROZEN WILLOW](https://realstill.com/epigrams/frozen-willow/) - It is what it is. - [FROZEN CHERRY TREE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/frozen-cherry-tree/) - It is what its is. - [FREUDIAN WEST](https://realstill.com/epigrams/freudian-west/) - I think a caption is useless. - [FREAK](https://realstill.com/epigrams/freak/) - Every day is Halloween on the east side of Cleveland. - [FOUNTAIN](https://realstill.com/epigrams/fountain/) - A drinking fountain at the Woodland Rec Center at East 855th & Woodland Avenue. Typical craft work from 100 years ago when craftsman, many Eurpoean, immigrated and provided bargain labor, which, for them, was an opportunity. The nearby Italain neighborhoods to the east and north and the Hungarian neighborhoods to the west and east were - [FOOTBALL JESUS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/football-jesus/) - The Solid Rock Church, along interstae 75 in Ohio built a fiberglass landmark they called King of Kings. It was hit by lightning (it had a steel armature) in 2010. It was replaced in 2012 by a new landmark, an object called Lux Mundi. This area of southern Ohio is known for its similarities with Rio, the same way Cleveland - [FLUSHING AIRPORT HANGAR 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/flushing-airport-hangar-2/) - Flushing Airport was a precursor to La Guardia in College Point, across the bay from present day LaGuardia. It was demolished six years after this shot and is part of a very large vacant, open space in Queens. - [FLUSHING AIRPORT HANGAR 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/flushing-airport-hangar-1/) - Flushing Airport was a precursor to La Guardia in College Point, across the bay from present day LaGuardia. In 2006 i shot this at midnight in ninety minute exposures on film. It was demolished soon after and is part of a very large vacant, open space in Queens. Notice the blue wings above the hangar's entrance. - [FLORA RECLUSION](https://realstill.com/epigrams/flora-reclusion/) - A bristlecone pine grows above the tree line, 11,000 feet, in the White Mountains of California. Perhaps 40 centuries of growth in a place where few living things exist, is a testament to the strategy of living where no one else can. For instance if the temperature increases, limber pines, similar to the bristlecone, could take over. - [FLATS SHAMAN 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/flats-shaman-2/) - After honoring the Solistice and harvest, Ignacio takes in the great expanse of the Flats, and signals, all is mine, all is understood. - [FLIGHT PATH](https://realstill.com/epigrams/flight-path/) - In Queens a jet lands at LaGuardia Airport. When the wind direction is from the east or north, the jets come in over this home every ninety seconds. - [EXPENSIVE EXIT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/expensive-exit/) - At Longfellow School on East 140th Street, even the exit signs were crafted in stained and leaded glass. It was one of twenty-five schools that were shut in one year's time. - [EARLY CONSPIRACY THEORY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/early-conspiracy-theory/) - This kid's parents put him up to this. They were off camera with protest signs. It never really caught on, because, for one thing, you need things like barcodes to get groceries to eat or to sign up on your facebook account to spew more conspiracy theories. "The cashless system" has exploded the last twenty years - [BEST SHOT, 2015](https://realstill.com/epigrams/best-shot-2015/) - Syed Farook (r.) and his wife, Tafsheen Malik, offered their pledge of allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi together, before their joint attack on the San Bernardino facility. (US CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION / HANDOUT/EPA) The picture of the year, in 2015, was taken by a surveillnace camera, and was clear, foreboding portriature, a surveillance selfie. - [FLATS SHAMAN 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/flats-shaman-1/) - The section of the city along the Cuyahoga River has been home to Cleveland's heavy industries since the early 1800s. Probably the best sense of humor, amongst the so-called destitiute, that inhabit downtown and the Flats, is Ignacio, who, can be relied upon to be drinking a malt beverage, and roaming the Flats badlands. Here Ignaciso - [FENCE OF BRANCHES](https://realstill.com/epigrams/fence-of-branches/) - Berwick Avenue had hardly any homes left when this shot was taken in 1995, but someone was irked that parking was still a possibilty, so they constructed a fence made of raw tree branches, even though every home had been demolished and there was open fields surrounding wide open parking on the street. - [FATE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/fate/) - A home and farm house, Trumansburg, New York, 2003. Earlier in the day, i stopped by to see if i could return that evening to do time exposures with the full moon as illumination. It turned out that two sisters lived there, worked the farm, and, i believe, one of the sistes was also a - [FALLEN CHIMNEY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/fallen-chimney/) - [FALL DEBRIS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/fall-debris/) - Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx - [EXTINCTUS AMABITUER IDEM](https://realstill.com/epigrams/extinctus-amabituer-idem/) - East side cemetery - "The same [hated] man will be loved after he's dead. How quickly we forget." (Horace) - [EUCLID BLUESTONE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/euclid-bluestone/) - A setting sun on bluestone, a type of sandstone that is a bit harder than sandstone, and will form the cap rock at the top of waterfalls, and spread all over the Nottheast as sidewalks that easily last for more that 120 years. - [ERIC FREEMAN'S HOUSE OF WILLS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/eric-freemans-house-of-wills/) - The House of Wills was a long-standing funeral home on East 55th Street. Eric Freeman took control in 2008. It was built when 55th was the center of Jewish life in Cleveland and originally was a German Music Institute. Mr. Freeman is known, amongst many things, as a collector of religious iconography. - [ENJOY A MOVIE TODAY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/enjoy-a-movie-today/) - 42nd Street, 1990. - [ECLIPSE 2024 02](https://realstill.com/epigrams/eclipse-2024-02/) - [ECLIPSE 2024 01](https://realstill.com/epigrams/eclipse-2024-01/) - [EC KIDS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/ec-kids/) - Five kids pose on their block in East Cleveland on Roxford Road which consisted of stunning rowhouses and apartment buildings built more than one hundred years ago when EC was very desriable. They are still stunning today, but negatively so. There is a row house to our left and it is where they live, even - [EC BALLS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/ec-balls/) - On Roxford Road in East Cleveland, three kids and three balls and a hoop. - [EBONICALLY CORRECT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/ebonically-correct/) - On Superior Avenue at East 60th Street the owners know their valued customers. - [EASTER TREE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/easter-tree/) - In the industrial Willow neighborhood a family every year decorates this tree during Easter, and the spring bloom, of which, it is one of the early ones. - [EASTER LAMB, ESPOSITO MEATS, MULBERRY STREET, 1987](https://realstill.com/epigrams/easter-lamb-esposito-meats-mulberry-street-1987/) - Hangin out at Johnnie Esposito's shop a couple of days before Easter. - [EAST 138TH STREET SCOOTER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/east-138th-street-scooter/) - One of the older regulars along East 138th by Brook Avenue, brings his scooter out for Labor Day Weekend in the Bronx. By the flags, it's confirmed, it's a Boriqua thing. He didn't want to pose with his bike, but i knew i would catch him next time. He and his crew were out every - [EAST 138TH STREET FIRE ESCAPES](https://realstill.com/epigrams/east-138th-street-fire-escapes/) - [EARLY WARNING](https://realstill.com/epigrams/early-warning/) - In the old Willow neighborhood of Cleveland, on Douse Avenue, the street dead-ends in a kind of circle of old worker homes from one hundred and twenty-five years ago. At the last home on the left, like a rattlesnake, you get a nice warning. Yes, he was a biker and i did knock on his door. - [EARLY BLM](https://realstill.com/epigrams/early-blm/) - At the RNC in Cleveland in 2016 this man came out of his neighborhood with the sign that he made, stood and silently made his point, always maneuvering in front of the numerous police formations. In less than four years polarization reached a seventy year high, but this guy would have plenty more company. - [EAGLE CLOTHES](https://realstill.com/epigrams/eagle-clothes/) - The well-seen Eagle Clothes sign in Brooklyn, along the BQE and elevated trains and neighborhoods of Carrol Gardens, Red Hook and Sunset Park. The landmark was taken down in 2014. I never understood why ayone would put clothes on a bird, let alone an eagle. - [DUNCOMB ARCHES](https://realstill.com/epigrams/duncomb-arches/) - DUNCOMB ARCHES, BRONX RIVER At the Gun Hill Road Bridge, there has been a river crossing since 1693, originally known as Wiliams-bridge. Here the Bronx River bends sharply, left, then right and runs along Duncomb Road, before flowing through the Arches, in the the last oxbow formations on the river. The Arches form a tunnel - [DRUMMER BOY, ST. ROCCO'S](https://realstill.com/epigrams/drummer-boy-st-roccos/) - Every year during the Labor Day weekend, St. Rocco, a church with strong Italian roots, has their Feast, and, amongst the church's honor guard, was its youngest member. - [DRUG WAR](https://realstill.com/epigrams/drug-war/) - In a little sub-neighborhod, Beaver Heights, a sign warns against vsiting for the purposes of drug procurement. Eventually the owner would die in an arson fire. - [DROP HAMMER BLUES](https://realstill.com/epigrams/drop-hammer-blues/) - Two Erie drop hammers sat mysteriosly on the concrete pad of what had been a large foundry of the Park-Ohio Company. After a few years both were finally removed and shipped to China, after being exposed to night and day for so long. The stack in the backgound is the now demolished First Energy Lakeside power plant, that - [DON'T FORGET](https://realstill.com/epigrams/dont-forget/) - Painted on the side of the General Mill Plant, on the Cuyahoa River, in Cleveland. The message is don't forget to remember. The operational mill dates back to the mid -1800s. The plant was closed in 2020. - [DOMED TEMPLE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/domed-temple/) - Hidden from the view of the public, although completely accesible, the Temple sits in a wooded expanse, and has a creek that runs through and under the structure, in a side building, to the left in the woods. Its redevelopment is in the works. Cleveland Heights had a large Jewish population as they moved east out of - [DOCUMENTARY OR ART?](https://realstill.com/epigrams/documentary-or-art/) - Ann Rand had the fountainhead, i have the crack head. The story of an architectural photographer that, whenever he sets up a shot, two crack 'hos show up and one bends over and moons, thus destroying the shot. It's an ironic story since all a man wants to do is serve his architecture clients, instead he's flung into the New - [DISHES](https://realstill.com/epigrams/dishes/) - Dishes accumulate at an apartment buiding on Taylor Road in East Cleveland. We are all individuals. - [DISH OF IMPORTANCE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/dish-of-importance/) - An East Cleveland apartment building covered in ivy, so much so it almost covers the windows, but not the satellite dish. - [DELANEY VILLAGE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/delaney-village/) - The picture doesn't look like much, but the way in which these housing projects became known as Delaney Village is important to remember. It is for myself, since i was shooting everything around the projects, for years, including the time the fatal event took place. - [DEAD TREES](https://realstill.com/epigrams/dead-trees/) - I couldn't believe hearing the words, dead trees, during the start of the tech boom. The fact that computers would save so many trees from becoming paper, wasn't a fact, but, an excuse. Jump forward to 2025 when I'm writing this. Data centers, combined with artificial intelligence will, at least, double the amount of energy - [DEAD TREE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/dead-tree/) - In High Bridge Park on the Manhattan side, above the Harlem River. - [DEAD PORN](https://realstill.com/epigrams/dead-porn/) - An old billboard on the side of the 10,000 Paperbacks Bookstore. Graffitti will be its last use before demolition in less than one year. The old Prospect Avenue porn ditsrict, Cleveland's 42nd Street, was in full demolition mode, here in 1986. Nothing remains of the ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​prostitution, hustlers, cheap hotels, bars and porn joints. The internet would make porn - [DAWGS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/dawgs/) - It was in Cleveland the term, "The Dawgs" caught on, especially after the hit, "Who Let the Dogs Out" and, as the leading expert on cultural development in the Rust Belt, i deem the term, appropriate. The Cleveland way, redemption by putting in your face, their self-knowlege about their city and its situation. Especailly, after - [DANGLING WHEELCHAIR REFLECTION](https://realstill.com/epigrams/dangling-wheelchair-reflection/) - A wheelchair hanging from demolished structures in the Junkyards, is reflected by the chemical waste. Once home to 23 acres of Junkyards in Queens, it's being redeveloped. This particula rarea will be New York's home soccer stadium. - [DANGER? TO WHOM?](https://realstill.com/epigrams/danger-to-whom/) - Like rattlesnakes, some people will give you fair warning. - [DAD'S IS GONE (1980-1983)](https://realstill.com/epigrams/dads-is-gone-1980-1983/) - I would walk over here when i lived on Albany Avenue, off Diversey, and witnessed the demise of the iconic beverage plant. This is when i began to understand the predictive moment. - [DAD'S](https://realstill.com/epigrams/dads/) - ©1980 RealStill The Dad's Root Beer Plant on North Washtenaw Street where it dead-ends at the railroad tracks and the JFK Expressway. Homes, otherwise, lined the street right up to the plant, and, at night, the mass of red neon, meant for motorists and rail commuters, would light the block with its glow. Combined with - [CROATION-WAHOO STYLE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/croation-wahoo-style/) - At the home opener, in 2018, an Indian fan from Eastern Europe who settled in Cleveland hangs out around the stadium. - [CRAZY WINDOW](https://realstill.com/epigrams/crazy-window/) - Along West 14th Street is the home of a truly unique person, and, a real character. His large home now sits in the middle of a heavily gentrified section of Cleveland. His home has no upkeep at all, and, his art, seemingly junk, is everywhere. He, of course, has been through it, with the city and the community, - [COULDN'T SAY IT ANY BETTER 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/couldnt-say-it-any-better-1/) - [CONSENSUS ON ELDERS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/consensus-on-elders/) - Even in the seventies there was a general opinion of Vermont being the Florida of the north, albeit a much colder, smaller, mountainous and counter-cultural place than Florida, and it's landlocked. The likes of Bernie Sanders, sort of updates and reinforces this. - [CONEY ISLAND ENVRIONMENTAL RESPECT 1986](https://realstill.com/epigrams/coney-island-envrionmental-respect-1986/) - Coney Island, 1988. - [CONEY ISLAND CERBERUS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/coney-island-cerberus/) - One of the many sights you'd see in the eighties in Coney Island. This one linking the three-headed dog, at the gates of hell, to the amusement park, where, in the eighties, you could have scarey or thrilling experiences beyond the rides, and, particularly under the boardwalk The three heads in mythology symbolize the past, present - [COKE EXPRESS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/coke-express/) - As Americans and the largest consumers of alcohol and drugs in the world, are we going to take responsibility? Human nature does not change. There will always be the black market as long as there are people. If, for instance, Americans drink 80% of the tequila made in Mexico, is Mexico exploiting us? Back in - [CLIFF HOUSE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/cliff-house/) - In Yonkers a home sits on the edge of an ongoing landslide. Large chunks of the Manhattan schist are breaking off. - [CLEVELANDERS NEVER FORGET](https://realstill.com/epigrams/clevelanders-never-forget/) - In 2009 the Catholic diocese in Cleveland began to close many ethnic churches of long standing. Here at St. Casimir, a Polish parish, the protests were many and of great duration. One Sunday, after the vigil held every week since the church closed, an ardent Cleveland Browns supporter, demonstrated the link between the bishop of - [CLEVELAND TELEVISION STAND](https://realstill.com/epigrams/cleveland-television-stand/) - A television from the 1980s sits atop a television from the 1950s in Eugenia's home in an old Polish section off East 55th Street, hemmed in by industry, with access by only one street. - [CLEVELAND SHALE OVERHANG](https://realstill.com/epigrams/cleveland-shale-overhang/) - Cleveland shale is usually a black layer of sedimentary rock, lying below Euclid bluestone and Chagrin shale. Part of the huge Marcus shale formation, the rock is rich in oil. Cleveland Shale can yield an average of 14 US gallons of oil per 1 short ton of rock, and is 360 to 358.9 million years old, dating - [CHURCH OF WASTE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/church-of-waste/) - A guy named Ernest who lives on this section of the Forgotten Triangle built this. The Forgotten Triangle is a large swath of land on the east side of Cleveland, comprised of sections of five different neighborhoods. You could say it's the center of the east side ghetto, and that comprises most all the - [CHRIST PASSES MILLION DOLLAR CLUB](https://realstill.com/epigrams/christ-passes-million-dollar-club/) - Every Good Friday this Procession travels between parishes on the west side of Cleveland. Here, as the Procession heads east on Clark Avenue, to return to St. Michael's twenty blocks away, they pass a notorious strip club along one of the west side's poorer, but still great, streets. - [CHIPPED COLUMN](https://realstill.com/epigrams/chipped-column/) - On an autumn afternoon in Woodland Cemetery, two people on a bicycle cruise past a chipped column on an ancient, ornate masoleum. - [CHICAGO, 1981, "DON'T FUCK WIF NO READER MAN"](https://realstill.com/epigrams/chicago-1981-dont-fuck-wif-no-reader-man/) - It's 3 AM at my home on Albany Avenue in Chicago. I just got home from work which was a driving job where I delivered newspapers all night. I wouldn't call it a dream job. In fact it was one of the most bust-ass jobs I ever had. It was a filmmaker, and I did - [CHICAGO GANGWAY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/chicago-gangway/) - In the Bridgeport neighborhood, a brick, and older wooden bungalow, leave a path to the back alley. - [CHEAT SPOT, 2021](https://realstill.com/epigrams/cheat-spot-2021/) - I've never seen a better place for a cheat spot than here, on Grand Avenue in the Forgotten Triangle section of Cleveland. Ten years ago the street was lined with homes that dead-ended at the great array of factory buildings that began as the Eberhard Manufacturing Company. A new 350 million dollar road, meant to spark - [CATALPA BLOOM](https://realstill.com/epigrams/catalpa-bloom/) - When the trumpet creeper blooms in June it's the only time all year that the Catalpa tree is pleasant. It's gnarly, dense, often twisted into overhangs with big singular three-lobed leaves. It's bark is black and rough. The Catalpa normally grows along rivers and was sometimes used for fence posting, and some make furniture from it, but generally it just - [CAT ON AN ASPHALT ROOF](https://realstill.com/epigrams/cat-on-an-asphalt-roof/) - Abandoned homes seems to agree with this one. - [CASTLE GARDENS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/castle-gardens/) - Castle Gardens is a very remote and small site out in the Red Desert of Wyoming. It seems the more remote these sites are, the more vandalized they can become. "Dear Diary, it was bad winter this month..." I presume your words and the effort it took to carve them, will make a bad life - [CAROUSEL](https://realstill.com/epigrams/carousel/) - When i took this shot on Coney Island, i was 36 years old and thought it was one of those things that was too nostalgic when i took it, but i also knew that when i was thirty years older it would be different. And i couldn't deny the truth of the shot, when i - [CAR DOOR SIGN](https://realstill.com/epigrams/car-door-sign/) - Take a piece of metal off an appliance, bolt it to some board, the spray paint the infamous line, "Do Not Cut the Grass." It's a primitive but effective form of communication in the decayed urban environment, it infoms the city that the owner will take care of cutting the grass, and avoid a large bill from the - [CAMEO FISH TANK](https://realstill.com/epigrams/cameo-fish-tank/) - Cameo Pet Shop, Richmond Hills, Queens, closed in 2014. - [CABBIE CELEBRATION](https://realstill.com/epigrams/cabbie-celebration/) - It's Sixth Avenue in the eighties. A few times, hardly ever, i would have my camera with me on various truck driving jobs in Manhattan. You would think that this guy was protesting or ranting, but, in fact, was celebrating his life in America, after having come here from Romania. America is really something, that's - [BYRON'S LIVING ROOM](https://realstill.com/epigrams/byrons-living-room/) - Byron, and his wife, Darlene, in their living room. Byron, a union laborer, builds these caricatures and has a large collection, not just Michael Jackson, which the family was honoring the star because he died that summer in 2009. - [BYRON'S HALLOWEEN DISPLAY, 2010](https://realstill.com/epigrams/byrons-halloween-display-2010/) - Every halloween Byron puts out his array of creations for the neighborhood. He lives in one of the apartments with his family and makes all the figures there. - [BYRON'S CLOWN](https://realstill.com/epigrams/byrons-clown/) - Byron, a union laborer by trade, creates dozens of these caricatures and, every Halloween, displays them on the front yard of his apartment building. - [BUSHWICK BOYS, 1986](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bushwick-boys-1986/) - Two gentleman of the streets pose on a croner along Central Avenue in Bushwick - [BURY MY HEART AT CLEVELAND HARDWARE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bury-my-heart-at-cleveland-hardware/) - But only because i never became successful where i could leave this shit behind. - [BULLET HOLE CROSS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bullet-hole-cross/) - The cross, once positioned on the highest steeple of St. Michael's church, is now on display inside the church, as part as an effort to fix it and hoist back to the top of the steeple which stands 286 feet ove the streeets below. The bullet reference is because in this city certain folks - [BULLET HOLE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bullet-hole/) - A detail of the copper cross that is on display inside Saint Michael Church. When the church was constructed its depot was the tallest structure in the city of Cleveland. Over the years the huge copper cross has suffered a bit of damage. Common in Cleveland, particularly on New Year's Eve, celebratory and random gunshots are - [BROOKLYN, WATER STREET, 1986](https://realstill.com/epigrams/brooklyn-water-street-1986/) - [BROOKLYN NIGHT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/brooklyn-night/) - Night tribute - [BROOKLYN FIREWORKS 3](https://realstill.com/epigrams/brooklyn-fireworks-3/) - In the distance the Greenpoint Holders loom over our neighborhood on July 4th, 1987. Definitely pre-Gulianni when Brooklyn would really light up. If you want the real neighborhood fireworks displays, they're in the Bronx today. - [BROOKLYN FIREWORKS 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/brooklyn-fireworks-2/) - The July 4th Fireworks from the roof of a condo building under construction, that i postioned myself in because the roof of my building, on the other side of the park, had been locked by our new landlord in gentrifying Williamsburg. I had scoped the sites out, mainly construction sites which were to be condos, - [BROOKLYN FIREWORKS 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/brooklyn-fireworks-1/) - The viewing platform and roof of my former beloved home in Williamsburg on Union Avenue, in 1998, where, after spending more time there than anywhere i will ever live, i left with only pictures and memories of the best years of a life, cut short by art and gentrification. - [BRONX WOMEN WEEP OVER BAD ARCHITECTURE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-women-weep-over-bad-architecture/) - On Tremont Avenue in the Bronx a group of women gather outside an architectural eyesore, that has created so much shame for the folks of the neighborhood, their emotions cannot be hidden. - [BRONX WINTER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-winter/) - Fordham Road between Sedgwick Avenue and Loring Place. - [BRONX WINDOW BARS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-window-bars/) - [BRONX WINDOW](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-window/) - On East 140th Street in Mot Haven, an old wood frame home, dating back to the Civil War, is adorned with Guadalupe and Mary, Mother of Jesus, memorials. - [BRONX WARNING](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-warning/) - On 141st St. in Mott Haven, a tenant has taped a special message to the entrance. - [BRONX TREE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-tree/) - On East 142nd Street, in Mott Haven, a ginko tree peaks in fall color. - [BRONX TRAIN STATION](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-train-station/) - Amtrak's Northeast Corridor runs on the tracks below the train station, and, in the background, the No 6 train runs down Westchester Avenue at the Bronx River where Longwood, Soundview and Hunts Point come together. The station used to service the Harlem & New Haven Line and closed in 1936. It was designed by the builder - [BRONX TIRES CENTER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-tires-center/) - The 140 Tires Center lasted until 2015 on Fordham Road in the University Heights section of the Bronx, replaced by a new apartment building, and part of a Bronx building boom that won't quit. The sign was auctioned at Sotheby's, fetching 1.2 million dollars as an example of American abstract outsider art from the 1940s. - [BRONX TIRED IN A TREE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-tired-in-a-tree/) - A tire was placed around a tree, or, it grew up and through it, along the Bronx River in East Tremont in a section of the river that the Bronx River Alliance began, in the 1970s, restoring the banks of the river with whatever materials thay had, which, in the Bronx, back then, there was, - [BRONX THEATRE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-theatre/) - The former Kent Movie Theatre on East 167th Street, just off the Concourse. - [BRONX SYNAGOGUE 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-synagogue-2/) - The same Valentine Avenue synagogue when it was open. Judging from the car in the bottom right corner, perhaps, late 1920s or 1930s. - [BRONX SYNAGOGUE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-synagogue/) - Congregation Mircaz Harav at 2832 Valentine Avenue, 2013. - [BRONX STABLE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-stable/) - In the back of a home on Albany Crescent Avenue that was built in 1890, a much older stable has been used as a garage, that no one uses since the structure's days are numbered. Good timing, cruised by there today, June, 2021 and it's being demolished. - [BRONX SHOE TOSS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-shoe-toss/) - One August evening i decided to walk down Bailey Avenue and shoot a Bronx Shoe Toss spot, the best, or worst, depending on your view, that's presently in effect. They're nuthin new, in fact the old black and whtie shots of the Bronx shoe toss spots are bigger. When i got down there i - [BRONX SECURE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-secure/) - Bronx Community College Cameras along University Avenue. Bronx Community College Cameras. Seems there is never too many cameras here. - [BRONX SCRAPPER 4](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-scrapper-4/) - In Morisania, a hard-working recycler stops to talk. - [BRONX SCRAPPER 3](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-scrapper-3/) - On Concorde Avenue in Mott Haven a scrapper's truck is fully loaded. - [BRONX SCRAPPER 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-scrapper-2/) - On Concorde Avenue in Mott Haven a scrapper loads up. - [BRONX SCRAPPER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-scrapper/) - In Mott Haven, along Brooke Avenue a veteran South Bronx scrapper searches for things. - [BRONX ROW](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-row/) - The tail end of a row of Bronx homes in the Mott Haven/Port Morris section of the Bronx. Rarer than ever, these worker homes, particualry ones that are unrehabbed, and housing blue-collar folks, when it was the norm back in the day, before the bigger Bronx apartments were built after these and gobbled up - [BRONX ROOTS 3](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-roots-3/) - Across Fordham Road from my apartment, roots meet gneis called Fordham. In 2020 construction began for a new apartment, in the area, which used to be the back of an old tire repair shop. It took three momths of pounding and excavating to tear out the thirty foot cliff to the back of the property. - [BRONX ROOTS 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-roots-2/) - Exposed roots are all over the Bronx - it's a function of many big trees and rocky, steep land, these roots are on Fordham Road at Loring Place. The roots were completely torn out in 2020, and even the rock formation, thirty feet tall, was obliterated to make room for a new building. Thanks to - [BRONX ROOTS 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-roots-1/) - Exposed roots are all over the Bronx - it's a function of many big trees and rocky, steep land. These are across the street from my building, in the back of a row of shops. Sitting above the cliff and all around are typical large west Bronx apartment buildings. The roots were torn out completely - [BRONX RESCUE DOG](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-rescue-dog/) - In the Bronx, along Fordham Road, dogs, old and young, are taught new tricks. - [BRONX RANTS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-rants/) - In the Bronx, on Tremont Avenue, we can work anything out. - [BRONX ORNAMENTAL BALCONY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-ornamental-balcony/) - On Fordham Road, the ornamental balcony holds a motorcycle and a caged bird. - [BRONX OLD AND NEW](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-old-and-new/) - On Morris Ave. a new apartment building, built on the foorprint of a duplex home, like the one next door, but contains 28 units, instead of two. - [BRONX MAIL DROP](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-mail-drop/) - In the Bronx, where everything is unflitered, direct and loud, I have one question for the owner of this shop on Webster Avenue and East 167th Street - "Sir, i can't spot your mailbox could you tell me where it is?" - [BRONX LITTLE ITALY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-little-italy/) - Arthur Avenue, the Bronx - i'm playing into the dominant Italian stereotype. The first time i heard of "political corretness" was Joseph Columbo's Italian Civil Rights Movement. Mr. Columbo actually got the federal governmnet and Hollywood to stop using the term, Mafia. But i digress. Only a jerk would get involved with pc, since it's such - [BRONX INDISCRETE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-indiscrete/) - One of the towers in Melrose Homes, uses an awning below a first floor entrance as a garbage can. This shot was taken because that is a rarity, and, is not that common. - [BRONX HIGH HOME 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-high-home-2/) - At the corner of West 163rd and Woodycrest Ave. on top of Bronx schist/Fordham gneiss, is an occupied home that dates back to just 40 years after the neighborhood began as Highbridge, named after the bridge that carried the city's water over the Harlem River. Next door is a row of stone houses, one of which, - [BRONX HIGH HOME](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-high-home/) - On Webster Avenue near Gun Hill Road homes are built on Fordham gneiss and Manhattan schist whch is the dominant geology of both upper Manhattan and the west Bronx. Homes on high, are common in these sections of the city. Here, the highlands of the West Bronx ends as the heights level off at Webster Avenue and - [BRONX HEAVEN](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-heaven/) - In the Marble Hill section of the Bronx they eat like Adam and Eve. - [BRONX GARDEN 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-garden-2/) - West 190th Street is known for its garden-style apartments. - [BRONX GARDEN](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-garden/) - On West 190th Street in Fordham, a sign cautions against stepping on some alleged grass. - [BRONX FIREWORKS 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-fireworks-2/) - Neighborhood fireworks blow along Lorring Place just south of Fordham Road at 3:00 am, in one of the magic kingdom moments in the Bronx. - [BRONX FIREWORKS 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-fireworks-1/) - In 2018 on July Fourth, Loring Place as it dead ends at Fordham Road, celebartes into the morning of July Fifth. - [BRONX FALL RUNNERS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-fall-runners/) - Running in the best park in NYC, and, to do so, especially in the fall, is one of the great pleasures of the city, where, in a city park, you can find places that look like the Hudson Highlands, and, much history with the Croton Viaduct and trails that run with it. George Washington - [BRONX EXHAUST](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-exhaust/) - The strictest CO2 laws in America went into effect in New York. All boilers must convert to natural gas, replacing heating oil, delivered in tanker trucks, can produce thick black toxic soot releases common to most large apartment buildings, that periodically dicharge from the boilers. - [BRONX EROSION 3](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-erosion-3/) - In Mott Haven, the Bronx, a pediment ornamentation has become unrecognizable by the action of weather and city air, but also lack of maintanence. - [BRONX EROSION 1 & 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-erosion-1-2/) - On Willis Avenue at East 138th Street an ornamental lion to the left of the entrance weathers poorly. On Willis Avenue at East 138th Street an identical ornamental lion to the right of the entrance weathers even more poorly. - [BRONX DOORWAY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-doorway/) - On Andrews Avenue a tenant walks her dog through the art deco doorway. It's the only thing interesting, since the interior has been modernized, and, originally was not as remarkable as some of the Bronx's great collection of art deco apartments. On Clay Avenue in Morrssania are two twin truer art deco buldings that - [BRONX DINER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-diner/) - The Blue Diner finally closed in 2015. It's outside was painted over in 2024, and, is on a section of East 138th in Mott Haven, once industrial, and is now, an extremely dynamic zone for building luxury high-rise developments. - [BRONX CRACKED HEAD](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-cracked-head/) - In the Tremont section of the Bronx, on Claremont Avenue, a collection of building ornamentations has one that has split open. It's a plumbing supply warhouse now, and it was a bowling alley at one time. - [BRONX CHIPMUNKS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-chipmunks/) - People, especially men, born in the Bronx, often have a special love for animals. Squirrels, chipmunks, pigeons, ducks, geese and all urban wild life puts them in a state of wonder. Check out the film, Five Corners. On Pelham Parkway the chipmunks are revered, so much so, that mostly human and religious figures decorate their - [BRONX CAT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-cat/) - Nelson takes his cat, Houdini, on a cruise through Concrete Plant Park along the Bronx River - [BRONX BARBER SHOP](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-barber-shop/) - Lee's Barber Shop, a.k.a., Reverend Lee's Barber Shop, East 167th Street, Morrisania. This old shop is gone. Robert, from Lee's, shoop has moved a couple doors down the street into a rehabbed shop. - [BRONX - CUSTOMER FRIENDLY](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bronx-customer-friendly/) - Catering to the locals on Broadway in Kingsbridge, Bronx. - [BROKEN CROSS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/broken-cross/) - [BRISTLECONE 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bristlecone-2/) - A bristlecone pine's wood is dense, slow-growing and pretty much dessicated at an elevation of 10,000 feet in a dry range like the White Mountains of California. The ultimate in reclusion as a strategy for survival. It works because they are the oldest trees on earth. Some trees here go back 5,000 years, many a - [BRISTLECONE 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bristlecone-1/) - Easliy the longest living creatures on this earth, the oldest is close to 6000 years old. Here in the White Mountains, above tree level, would be an ideal location for a a certain kind of hardy tree that survives by avoiding other trees or other living things that could pose harm, like fungus and insects. By - [BRICK MENU](https://realstill.com/epigrams/brick-menu/) - A menu painted on the side of a neighborhod deli around East 110th and Mount Carmel. The neighborhood began as a large Italian enclave and a long-gone classic amusement park called Luna Park, that was eventually demolished and replaced by housing projects. The deli, which had been there forever is gone, demolished in 2014. - [BRICK FLAG](https://realstill.com/epigrams/brick-flag/) - Along St. Clair Avenue the flag is rendered simply. - [BOWLING IN STONE 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bowling-in-stone-2/) - On St. Clair, in Cleveland a past culture is honored, and, if you walk inside, you'll find the Maple Lanes Bar with a four lane bowling alley in the back, - [BOWLING IN STONE 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bowling-in-stone-1/) - On Kinsman Road in Cleveland the local culture is still honored in stone, even if the lanes are long gone. - [BLUNTED POWER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/blunted-power/) - On 42nd Street at the Selwyn Theatre, 40 years ago, a shirt like this was controversial. Her name was Chill Town Girl, becuase she was from Chill Town, New Jersey, and was a Deuce regular around the time of its demise as a Hustler's Paradise. - [BLIND STREET VENDOR](https://realstill.com/epigrams/blind-street-vendor/) - This couple is is a regular part of the Queens Junkyards' work day. "Mariachi" cannot see and was blinded in a factory shooting in Jersey. His companion is an integral part of the business team. It really shows what kind of guy he is, and he is really something. A person who produces pictures can - [BLAST FURNACE EXPLOSION](https://realstill.com/epigrams/blast-furnace-explosion/) - Republic Engineering Poducts' Blast Furnace #4 has just had an explosion. Most likely it's water coming in contact with heavy molten iron. US steel bought Johnson Steel in 1898 and began to rapidly expand. Eventually a huge mill with five blast furnaces and a tube division was built along the Black River. In 1984 - [BLANCHE GRIMSHAW'S BEDROOM MEMORIAL](https://realstill.com/epigrams/blanche-grimshaws-bedroom-memorial/) - My next door neighbor, Blanche, made this very Catholic memorial in her railroad flat bedroom in good old Brooklyn. - [BLACKOUT MOON](https://realstill.com/epigrams/blackout-moon/) - The Blackout of 2003, provided the rare oppotunity to shoot the city with only moonlight, especially in Calvary Cemetery in Blissville, Queens. Shot on film in a 45 minute exposure at 3:00 am. - [BLACK AMERICAN HANNIBAL](https://realstill.com/epigrams/black-american-hannibal/) - A home-made tribute in the Glenville section of Cleveland. - [BILLINGS THREAT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/billings-threat/) - A small dead end alley on Minnesota Avenue in South Billings, 1989, on the "other side of the railroad tracks." Minnesota Avenue was the Billing's skid row, and, of course, is gone. - [BILLINGS FENCE 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/billings-fence-2/) - South side of Billings, close on the licsence fence. - [BILLINGS FENCE 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/billings-fence-1/) - A home's fence in the south side of Billings, "across the tracks" in 1989. - [BIG UMBRELLA](https://realstill.com/epigrams/big-umbrella/) - Out in the Junkyards, across from Citi Field, Edwin awaits customers for auto repair work along Willet's Point Avenue that, in 2013, was lined with dozens of auto reapair shops and junkyards. - [BIG CHANDELIER 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/big-chandelier-2/) - The chandelier, about 7 feet tall by 5 feet wide, at the base, hangs in the Willson Temple, and when it closed finally in 2014, it was Friendship Baptist Church. - [BIG CHANDELIER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/big-chandelier/) - The 55rth largest city in America, as of 2014, has the largest outdoor chandelier in the world. The streetscape cost 16 million dollars, with 4 million chipped in by the public, through their casino taxes. Most of the cost was paid by coroporate donations. It weighs 8500 pounds and has 4300 crystals. Normally a chandelier is found inside - [BIG CATALPA](https://realstill.com/epigrams/big-catalpa/) - On Aberdeen Avenue, a Catalpa tree in the fall. - [BICYCLE WHEEL FENCE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bicycle-wheel-fence/) - It is what it is. Basic home-made unschooled art with a use. - [BICYCLE ORNAMENT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bicycle-ornament/) - Hough Avenue, home-made bike ornament. The creator declined to participate. - [BEST VIDEO, 2020](https://realstill.com/epigrams/best-video-2020/) - Darnell Frazier operates her cell phone video to capture, what quickly became, because of it, of such great social impact, that it's hard to describe. But that's the deal with a camera - it can describe everything so well as to have far more veracity than any person. The George Holliday video, and Ms. Frazer's - [BEST MOVIE, 2019](https://realstill.com/epigrams/best-movie-2019/) - For RealStill, a self-made thirty second video clip in 2019, was a cinematic masterpiece in style and content. Its popularity is obvious, but the subtext of a guy going to work, his truck breaks down, he whips out a cell phone and a skateboard, then redeems the typical blue-collar world's problems of struggle from - [BERGEN HUNT & FISH CLUB DOOR](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bergen-hunt-fish-club-door/) - In Ozone Park at John Gotti's Queens headquarters, locals adorn his door with remeberances and tributes to Mr. Gotti on the day of his funeral in Maspeth. - [BELLIGERENT CAT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/belligerent-cat/) - One morning, in East Cleveland, a lady feeds her cats in one of her old aquariums outside her home, and, one cat, in particular, doesn't appreciate the attention. The woman has a large home, with belongings filling the porch, yard and driveway, and proceeding up the street, where this aquarium was, and, where she fed - [BEFORE CRAFT BEER WAS CRAFT BEER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/before-craft-beer-was-craft-beer/) - Before craft beer was craft beer it was craft beer. In Butte Montana (1989) an old beer ad from when breweries flooded America before consolidation after Prohibition. - [BEDROOM WINDOW 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bedroom-window-2/) - The view from a bedroom window on East 58th Strret. The view is a good one, if you like industry - scrap steel and metals being cut up with torches, that will eventually be sold to steel mills, like the one in the background. In fact the plumes of smoke and steam are form a - [BEDROOM WINDOW 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bedroom-window-1/) - The stacks of the basic oxygen plant, known as the direct hot charge complex, of Arcelor Mittal Steel can be seen from the second floor bedroom in a home on Holmden Avenue. Cleveland's Holmden Avenue a.k.a., Holmden Hill, and before that Dutch Hill. The Dutch enclave was quickly replaced by immigrant Poles working the - [BEAUTIFUL FOUNTAIN](https://realstill.com/epigrams/beautiful-fountain/) - The drinking fountain at the Woodland Avenue Recreaton Center, one of the few remaining structures in the Forgotten Triangle. The rec center was the home base of Ken Johnson who had the second longest run of any council person, which was ended byconvictions resultig in prison. The Italianette brick/terra cotta structure goes back to 1915 when - [BEAU'S BASEMENT](https://realstill.com/epigrams/beaus-basement/) - Beau in the basement of his home. - [BATTER UP, CITI FIELD](https://realstill.com/epigrams/batter-up-citi-field/) - In the Junkyards, where dozens of auto shops and salvage yards existed, we celebrate the arts and entertainment industry and its impact on city-owned park lands, like Flushing Meadows that was carved out of the dumps for the World's Fairs and is known for its arts, sports and park facilities. The city leased the - [BAN ON URINATION](https://realstill.com/epigrams/ban-on-urination/) - In the junkyards, across the street from Citi Field, in Queens, they have become sick and tired of pipi. - [BAD LAND BEAT DOWN](https://realstill.com/epigrams/bad-land-beat-down/) - Leaving the big Badlands National Park, after a week of shooting, mostly at night, i dropped by the Shelf, a formation that knifes out to the high prarie from the edge of the badlands. The landscape behind me had blizzrd conditions dumping a foot of snow, as well as, perfect full moon nights with brisk - [AUTHENTIC FOOD](https://realstill.com/epigrams/authentic-food/) - In Drums, Pennsylvania, off Interstate 80, an old funky trailer sits amongst gas stations, convenience stores and fast food joints, selling Mexican food. In 2023 it was gone and the area was developed into another auto/truck stop operation. Like most things that are authentic - they're becoming more and more temporary - the food truck - [AT HOME IN A WASTELAND](https://realstill.com/epigrams/at-home-in-a-wasteland/) - Ernest takes a nap one afternoon in the place that was his home, where he would also build things from the trash that surrounded him. This is the center of the city's Forgotten Triangle, a huge swath of land that decayed out from this particular section, beginning in a hot, windy, summer firestorm that took - [ART OF THE FLIP - OUTDOOR CHANDELIER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/art-of-the-flip-outdoor-chandelier/) - I don't get it. My preference, if i had 16 million dollars, would be better general lighting of the entire district including, bigger marquees, and the use of new lighting technology, done in a classy way, which is what General Electric, a big presence here, always delivers, like they did with this big-ass chandalier. A district like - [ARISTOTLE 3](https://realstill.com/epigrams/aristotle-3/) - Aristotle had two homes, both of which were plastered with his philosophical views. His oldest and original home on E. 65th St. was finally seized by the county for various reasons. The ultimate one being his penchant for expression plastered all over his house, that could only be legally done in by tax and zoning - [ARISTOTLE 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/aristotle-2/) - The man himself, , stands before his home in 1979. One of his beliefs was that white people came from dogs. When I asked him to prove that, he called one of his dogs, and then he pulled back the fur so I could see the skin of the dog, and, of course it was the - [ARISTOTLE 1](https://realstill.com/epigrams/aristotle-1/) - In 1979 the home of Aristotle Walters, East 65th Street, Cleveland. This and another home he owned in the city, were a constant source of irritation for the county since it probably defied zoning rules, etc. but also clashed with his right to free speech, which kept the eventual seizure and demolition at bay for - [ARE INDIANS GOOD FOR BUSINESS?](https://realstill.com/epigrams/are-indians-good-for-business/) - Sports, a corporate category slow to embrace the inclusive and pc thing, as most all corporations are very pc. Slow, but the worm does turn that way, perhaps flipping, but only because it might, one day, make business sense. A compromise worked out with the commissioner, resulting in an all-star game played in Cleveland in 2019, - [APARTMENT REDESIGN](https://realstill.com/epigrams/apartment-redesign/) - An apartment building on Lakeview Road, has been crudely kept going. - [ANNE'S HOME](https://realstill.com/epigrams/annes-home/) - One of the oldest existing homes in Manhattan on East 169th St. between Audobon and Amsterdam, is Ann's home. The home itself stands out on the block because of its age and architecture. Most buildings on the block were built around 1880 to 1910, but this rare single family home was actually moved from an area that - [AN ANGEL IN THE PEWS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/an-angel-in-the-pews/) - Kong, a Hell's Angel member, sits in St. George church which is a block from the Angels' Club House. Over the years the pastor and the Angels have been neighbors, and this was the day of the last Mass in the church, which was moving further east, and was part of a larger shutdown of ethnic - [AMERICAN TIPS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/american-tips/) - Lucy shows her tips in the Junkyards, Citi Field in the background. The shops that line Willet's Point Avenue, behind Lucy are gone. This shot was taken in 2016. Lucy, who would bounce between Columbia and New York, and had a great love for America, but she hasn't been in the Junkyards or New York, for years, since - [AMAZON BRICK & MORTAR](https://realstill.com/epigrams/amazon-brick-mortar/) - The Amazon building, Lorain Avenue, 1981. - [ALT-RIGHT PERFORMANCE ARTIST](https://realstill.com/epigrams/alt-right-performance-artist/) - What had been going on for years, that began to crystalize with Trump who was an expert reality television star, was, right-wing performance art, that a few years later, would make its way into the Capitol, with the Matt Gaetz Gas Mask performances, when he was supposed to be doing the work of government, which, some now interpert, as being a - [ALCOHOHOL USED HERE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/alcohohol-used-here/) - On Willlet's Point Avenue, Queens in the section known as the Iron Trinagle where they work hard and play harder. Booze is as dangerous and unhealthy as many illegal drugs, and, as you can see, really popular in the Junkyards. - [AIR RIGHTS](https://realstill.com/epigrams/air-rights/) - Chicago, North Elston Avenue, 1982. - [ABSTRACT 7](https://realstill.com/epigrams/abstract-7/) - Along Miles Avenue. - [ABSTRACT 6](https://realstill.com/epigrams/abstract-6/) - Grand Avenue billboard - [ABSTRACT 5](https://realstill.com/epigrams/abstract-5/) - A sign at the Federal Steel & Wire Plant in the Flats, Clevelnd. Originally it was the Upson Nut & Bolt Company, bought by Republic Steel, that made nuts and bolts from scratch, including making its own metals, with ore docks and furnaces. The plant closed in 1978 and was torn down in 1995. - [ABSTRACT 4](https://realstill.com/epigrams/abstract-4/) - A wall. - [ABSTRACT 3](https://realstill.com/epigrams/abstract-3/) - On East 105th Street in Cleveland, a combination of messages concerning cutting the grass and being open is mixed on a sign that is planted in the middle of an empty field. - [ABSTRACT 2](https://realstill.com/epigrams/abstract-2/) - Billboard. - [A STAR ASSHOLE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/a-star-asshole/) - In Van Cortlandt Park, the Bronx, the morning after hurricane Henri, I was greeted by this tag. Graffiti on nature or ancient artifacts, great infrastructure or occupied and working homes and businesses is abhorrent, but, can be great, on anythng abandoned, banal and a human-made wasteland. Tagging nature and ancient artifacts is particulalry messed up - [9/11, THE MORNING AFTER](https://realstill.com/epigrams/9-11-the-morning-after/) - We could easily see the Towers fall the day before from the block. We were on our stoops and sidewalk the next day early in the morning. In the bacground to the right Frankie, Marion, her son, and Blanche. Her daughter, Veronica, was still stuck in Manhattan, she worked at Bear Sterns at Battery Park. - [666 LOUNGE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/666-lounge/) - Chicago's near south side. One of the many places catering to drunks that used to dot Chicago. In fact this was a smaller skid row, around South Seventh Street, not part of the much larger official skid row on the near west side in 1980. Here, the address, moral atmosphere and name were as one and easy - [2020 - A SIGN FOR THE TIME](https://realstill.com/epigrams/2020-a-sign-for-the-time/) - A sign on the front porch of a home in Mingo Junction, Ohio, on Lincoln Avenue, a few blocks from their dead steel mill, sums it all up. - [1957 CHEVY BELAIRE AIR SPORT COUPE](https://realstill.com/epigrams/1957-chevy-belaire-air-sport-coupe/) - Palm Beach Motors on Broadway Avenue has been displaying this Chevy since 1983. They got it from a dealership close by that had closed in the more terrible eighties. The top of the line, Belaire, was fhe frst with the Ramjet Fuel Injection system. The Bel Aire became the first production V-8 passenger car with this technology ## Essays - [WHY, SCREENS?](https://realstill.com/essays/why-screens/) - Top picture - An old phone is part of a toxic waste site in the Junkyards in Queens. The old dead technology lasted almost a century, and, was just the beginning of quickly developing virtual representations and by adding portability, a computer and a camera, the new phones have become appendages that can screen and - [BRONX CUT](https://realstill.com/essays/bronx-cut/) - Pictures of the cross Bronx Expressway - [ESPOSITO'S MEATS](https://realstill.com/essays/espositos-meats/) - Esposito Meats was on Mulberry Street, not far from Canal, on the east side of the street next to Ferrara's. Johnny Esposito ran the place and he made a display concerning the roots of the store in the neighborhood. Before we go into Johhie's place, when i make accurate duplicates of time and place, particularly - [THE WILLIAMSBURG NATIONAL MONUMENT (1986-1996)](https://realstill.com/essays/the-williamsburg-national-monument-1986-1996/) - Williamsburg National Park skyline sunset from my window. The Ko Rec Type Plant on Kent Ave. - Monument to the white out of our neighborhood by artists, hipsters, developers, bar owners and landlords. The view out my window on Union Ave. - here local members of the Williamsburg Monument Conservancy discuss the waterfront, six blocks to the west, where some of - [WILLETS FIREWORKS (2013-2019)](https://realstill.com/essays/willets-fireworks/) - The Mets occasional summer fireworks nights were shot from the Iron Trinagle, mostly, and another location, which is above Roosevelt Avenue elavated subway bridge with Willet's Point and the Mets' Citi Field in the background. Willets Point is actaully out in Bayside, Queens, and the Junkyards, or, Iron Triangle, along Flushing Creek is mostly associated - [NARRATIVES, ALTERNATE FACTS & MEN'S HAIR DYE](https://realstill.com/essays/narratives-alternate-facts-mens-hair-dye/) - There are no lies and bullshit comparable to the lies and bullshit of today. Nothing changes, but the language of bullshit, lies and absurdities. - [SAN JUAN MISSION CEMETERY](https://realstill.com/essays/san-juan-mission-cemetery/) - Pictures of the San Juan mission cemetery south of Farmingdale, New Mexico on the road that leads to Bisti Badlands. - [THE HISTORY OF CITIES DOESN'T BEGIN WITH YOU](https://realstill.com/essays/the-history-of-cities-doesnt-begin-with-you/) - People who have never been to the Bronx or New York, for that matter, seem to know so much about where i live for so long. This knowledge was garnered through media - books, movis, videos - but i can't locate it anywhere here, in the Bronx, where we live. Ever bother to pay attention - [JUNKYARDS EFFIGIES](https://realstill.com/essays/junkyards-effigies/) - The people from the Iron Triangle section of Queens, filled with auto repair shops, iron works and junkyards, use the tools and materials of their different businesses, to produce scrap effigies. It's junkyard art, even Banksy planted an effigy in a puddle of waste in the Iron Triangle, his Sphinx. Junkyard effigies go beyond expressions - [EC HOLES (2015-2019)](https://realstill.com/essays/ec-holes-2015-2019/) - The absurd ghetto known as East Cleveland is symbolically approached through its potholes. Cleveland is known for many things that are negative like abandonment and potholes, which are the biggest you can find. - [DUMPS THROUGH TIME (1980-2014)](https://realstill.com/essays/dumps-through-time-1980-2014/) - Hazardous waste sites n Cleveland Ohio got the slum and ghetto neighborhood, particularly on the east side. Former factories and manufacturing sites are turned into so-called recycling centers that are simply a cover for illegal dumping of toxic waste and pollution. - [RNC, 2016](https://realstill.com/essays/rnc-2016/) - Performance art. That's where America is at when it comes to activism. Although people were waiting for, this was no Chicago convention of 1968. Many of the predicted huge protest that were called for, became dwarfed by the police presence. Mostly people stood in their groups or individually and simply expressed themselves in variations in - [BERTINE BLOCK](https://realstill.com/essays/bertine-block/) - Photographs of the historic block in Mott Haven, the Bronx by George Keister, along west 135th street built by Bertine as row houses - [BRONX GOOD FRIDAY](https://realstill.com/essays/bronx-good-friday/) - Photographs of the Good Friday procession in the Bronx at Saint Joseph Church on Bathgate Avenue in Tremont. Jesus is crucified in Cortona Park in March through the street in a beautiful epic. - [ZBIGNIEW “JOE” ZOLKOWSKI, ARTIST](https://realstill.com/essays/zbigniew-joe-zolkowski-artist/) - People's nicknames in the Junkyards were the worst. Like Nacho, a notorious lover of intoxicants and a well-known long-tme junkyards worker, who actually "retired" (retirement in the junkyards is usually jail and death) from the place around the Covid time. It was love, and, compared to his history in the Iron Triangle, was the way to - [BAD WATER BOTTOM](https://realstill.com/essays/bad-water-bottom/) - Photographs of English kills, Newtown Creek, Dutch kills, East Williamsburg, and the pollution and toxic chemicals on the water in beautiful blooms of pollution - [PORT MORRIS BRANCH](https://realstill.com/essays/port-morris-branch/) - The Port Morris branch freight tunnel and cut system underneath the south Bronx, Port Morris, Mott Haven, Melrose where trains moved freight below street level - [THE LOST & VARIED INDUSTRIES OF CHICAGO](https://realstill.com/essays/the-lost-varied-industries-of-chicago/) - Chicago was The Blue-Collar Metropolis. It was Buffalo on steroids, set in its extreme flatness where the prarie edges the Lakes. When you had many cities, many of America's largest, that had populations that the were majority blue-collar. Easy to understand when you realiz the, in a place like Chicago, plants and industry were strewn all over - [RONNIE BEBERMAN - SELTZER MAN](https://realstill.com/essays/ronnie-beberman-seltzer-man/) - Ronnie Bieberman, seltzer man extraordinaire, tough and physical work. - [OLD FASHION HOT DOGS (1921-2020)](https://realstill.com/essays/old-fashion-hot-dogs-1921-2020/) - Old fashion hot dogs is an original old school hotdog stand on Lorraine Avenue in Cleveland. Almost 100 years old it closed during Covid and was known as the epitome of diners. - [CHICAGO GANG SIGNS (1980-1984)](https://realstill.com/essays/chicago-gang-signs-1980-1984/) - Photographs of Chicago gang signs in the 1980s - [STOOP](https://realstill.com/essays/stoop/) - The tenement stoop in Williamsburg Brooklyn in the old days. Union Avenue on the stoop, hanging out with good friends. - [BYRON KELLY, CARICATURIST](https://realstill.com/essays/byron-kelly-caricaturist/) - Byron Kelly, long-time laborer with local 860 in Cleveland, enjoys creating life-size caricatures of people we all know, love and hate and, also, original characters that come from his imagination. His work can border on effigy and can become that as well, whether admired or abhorred. This array of pictures was taken between 2007 and 2011, when Byron - [WENDELL OF THE BRONX](https://realstill.com/essays/wendell-of-the-bronx/) - Wendell, Wendall, any way you use it, is Germanic and connotes the wanderer, and, Wendell was just that. I was walking home on a cloudy day and out of the corner of my eye i saw him, standing stockstill, and expressionless. I was struck by this attire and attitude. I would see him next at - [THE NOTION OF PC](https://realstill.com/essays/the-notion-of-pc/) - A statue, so important in PC culture, itself largely symbolic, at Saint Michaels school on Scranton Ave. in Cleveland. A huge Gothic building built in 1888 to educate Catholic immigrant children. The school is now closed and has been for quite a while, although the church is thriving next-door with the new immigrants who are mostly - [THE SECOND COMING](https://realstill.com/essays/the-second-coming/) - Donald Trump is the chosen one and he will win the 2024 election and turn it into his second coming or, his golden age of America. - [BUZZWORD BRIEF (2020-2022)](https://realstill.com/essays/buzzword-brief-2020-2022/) - A list of trendy buzz words, some two trendy to last, while others will live on, like 24/7. The popular use of buzzwords is analyzed. - [THE ASSHOLE HALL OF FAME](https://realstill.com/essays/the-asshole-hall-of-fame/) - I have completely followed Benjamin's Franklin's four cornerstones, eexcept the last one. Franklin didn't know assholes on this level, the same way that, the founding fathers didn't dream of children murdering chldren or mass shootings based soley on race, religion, sexual choices and/or politics. It's only necessary to react when the damage is huge, and - [THE SLURRY WALL (2003)](https://realstill.com/essays/the-slurry-wall-2003/) - Pictures of the world trade centers' slurry wall that was exposed after 911 and held back the Hudson River from flooding the World Trade Center site. At the trade center is infrastructure charged with meeting. - [ELIZABETH KOCHER'S NEIGHBORHOOD](https://realstill.com/essays/elizabeth-kochers-neighborhood/) - Cleveland's Industrial Valley Neighborhood - the east side where the Clark Avenue Bridge becomes Pershing Avenue. The aerial was taken in the thirties. The swath of homes to the right of the mill is basically gone. A couple streets - Pershing, Jewett - remain close to the edge of the bluffs in the upper center. - [AMERICAN ROCK ART](https://realstill.com/essays/american-rock-art/) - Photographs of American native rock art in Utah shot with a full moon as the only illumination. The ghost panel, Sinbad panel Castle, rock Wyoming, Vernal Utah - [PERFORMATIVE POLITICS](https://realstill.com/essays/performativ-politics/) - Politics is mostly performance art. Musk high on shrooms with his chain saw, Trump working Macdonals's. Entertainment and politics have been blended into performance - [BRONX STREETS](https://realstill.com/essays/bronx-streets/) - Pictures of the streets of the Bronx, it's neighborhoods and people. - [FULL MAGA](https://realstill.com/essays/full-maga/) - MAGA warrior drains the swamp of lunatic liberals, destroying America - [MONTANA BARS (1989-1998)](https://realstill.com/essays/montana-bars-1989-1998/) - The bars of Montana, no for their unique architecture, and atmosphere, historic blue-collar bars, dives in Great Falls, Butte, Billings, Montana, neon, neon-lit - [COLNEL ALEXANDER DOULL](https://realstill.com/essays/major-alexander-doull/) - Alexander Doull, artillery officer in Europe and the Civil War, died in Pennsylvania in 1863 and ended up buried in Woodland Cemetery, Cleveland. - [MONTANA INDUSTRY (1989-1998)](https://realstill.com/essays/montana-industry-1989-1998/) - There's nothing like shooting the industrial west. All the advantages of the western landscape can easily be put to work, without nature as the subject, but as the setting. Even when I shot a book of all the American badlands by moonlight in the nineties1990s, I would try to also hit the nearby industrial sites - [OBIE PORTER'S GARDENS](https://realstill.com/essays/obie-porters-gardens/) - Obie Porter came to Cleveland from the farms of the south, worked hard his entire life. Obie's was a master gardener and farmer, grew crops, flowers at his home - [BEAVER HEIGHTS](https://realstill.com/essays/beaver-heights/) - Pictures of Beaver Heights ghetto in Cleveland, including homes and people left in a drug zone and mostly abandoned, slow slowly dying neighborhood. - [LINESVILLE SPILLWAY](https://realstill.com/essays/linesville-spillway/) - The Linesville Spillway filled with crawling carp, fed white bread by visitors in a bizarre and surreal scene of masses of carp swarming to meat white bread. - [NORTH RIVER TUNNELS (1996-2001)](https://realstill.com/essays/north-river-tunnels-1996-2001/) - The north river tunnels feed Amtrak in New Jersey transit into Manhattan through the New Jersey Palisades, and under the Hudson river. Pictures of the old tunnels with trains, blasting through colorful, brilliant and artistic. - [ELI MILLER - SELTZER MAN](https://realstill.com/essays/eli-miller-seltzer-man/) - Eli Miller, the last seltzer man and the oldest, into his eighties, a New York legend, is seen at the seltzer plant, loading his truck while still alive in 2013 - [BRONX FALLS](https://realstill.com/essays/bronx-falls/) - Pictures of all the waterfalls in the Bronx including the Bronx River, Van Cortlandt Park, the botanical gardens and Bronx zoo. Photographs of beautiful waterfalls in the Bronx. - [PORT MORRIS FERRY BRIDGES (2013)](https://realstill.com/essays/port-morris-ferry-bridges-2013/) - Pictures of the Port Morris ferry lift Bridges along the east river in the south Bronx in Port Morris. - [SONNY O'DAY](https://realstill.com/essays/sonny-oday/) - Pictures of Sonny O'Day at his Laurel Montana bar which contained boxing paraphernalia, including a boxing ring, a dive bar that was Sonny O'Day's home in Laurel, Montana. - [THE RICHMAN BROTHERS COMPANY](https://realstill.com/essays/the-richman-brothers-company/) - Richman brother company on E. 55th St. in Cleveland, Ohio. Pictures of the factory where they made Covid spelt decline resulted in closing in 1995. - [TWOSHOES, SELTZER MAN](https://realstill.com/essays/twoshoes-seltzer-man/) - Photographs of the notorious, two shoes, seltzer man. The Brooklyn seltzer man delivered to lower Manhattan, including all the old walk ups the history of seltzer and the life of a seltzer man. - [THE LOST STEEL MILLS OF CHICAGO (1980-2004)](https://realstill.com/essays/the-lost-steel-mills-of-chicago-1980-2004/) - Acme, Interlake, Wisconsin, Republic steel mills are photographed in the 1980s and 1970s inoperation along the Calumet River with blast furnaces, coke plants - [DISTRESSED AMERICAN FLAGS](https://realstill.com/essays/distressed-american-flags/) - Pictures of old and worn American flags in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and much of the Rust Belt - [CRUMB AVENUE, 2019](https://realstill.com/essays/crumb-avenue-2019/) - On Crumb Avenue, a short street that runs norh and south between East 79th Street and Wheelock Road, for four blocks, was, at one time, part of the Polish or panzi section of the St. Clair-Superior neighborhood. The street went through the usual Rust Belt descent, particualrly, when, in 1980, White Motors (and a host of others) - [CONSPRACIST PROFILE](https://realstill.com/essays/conspracist-profile/) - The mindset of a conspiracist is one of no real ambition, no empathy and, too much television. The conspiracy of powerless, like this all, but they make stuff up. - [CITY, DO NOT CUT](https://realstill.com/essays/city-do-not-cut/) - Photographs of signs that all say city do not cut in Cleveland Ohio in the ghetto. Hough, Gleville, Collinwood, i55th, superior, City, Don' Cut is a slum thing. - [CHICAGO SCHLITZ TIED HOUSES' GLOBES](https://realstill.com/essays/chicago-schlitz-tied-houses-globes/) - Photographs of Chicago Schlitz tied houses' globes in the 1980s - [CHICAGO BANKS (1980-1983)](https://realstill.com/essays/chicago-banks-1980-1983/) - Pictures of old Chicago Banks in the 1980s - [CELEBRITY](https://realstill.com/essays/celebrity/) - When it comes to ego, narcissim and ambition, there isn't much difference, but, for style, between left and right, politics and entertainment, and, both, in fact, successfully mine their own digestive tracts, sacrificing character, with transactional living, boreholing into the endless depths of the get-mine, in media and politics. The champions of misinformation and the transactional - [CAMEO PET SHOP](https://realstill.com/essays/cameo-pet-shop/) - The famous cameo pet shop in ozone Park, Queens featuring butt kiss the giant fish. Old style neighborhood store, the kind that is disappearing, featuring live animals for sale. - [MONTETIZE, BABY, MONETIZE](https://realstill.com/essays/montetize-baby-monetize/) - Fuck-you money. That’s the cathedral at the center of America’s dream, now — the idol the billionaires pray to while the rest of us scavenge for Wi-Fi and meaning. It's not money, not really. It's the price of living entirely in your own world and dictating it. It's a detonator or chainsaw The power to say no with - [THE WORST STREET IN AMERICA](https://realstill.com/essays/the-worst-street-in-america/) - Before beginning with the worst street in America, we'll start on a positive note and look at the best Street in America, historically and ornamentally speaking that is. This would be Euclid Avenue, the main drag of Cleveland Ohio. As the city exploded into an industrial powerhouse, the Masters of industry within the city coagulated along Euclid - [MALGA PATRIOT, 2023](https://realstill.com/essays/malga-patriot-2023/) - “If Trump were a black man, he would be Don King” - Sharpton. “Only in America.” - Don King King’s favorite aphorism, keeps getting more accurate every year, with the likes of Kyrie, Kanye, Elon, and Big Daddy Trump. It's 2022, and in exile, but know, on two years we will be Full MAGA, - [MARIACHI](https://realstill.com/essays/mariachi/) - It's the Junkyards, a.k.a., the Iron Triangle, a completely unique and endemic neighborhood, that the city used to have loads of, and is now rarer than ever. Even the Junkyards have been hit hard in a rapidly changing city, and the city just shut down a third of it for complete remidation and redevelopment. The situation has - [JUNKYARDS' STREET CUISINE](https://realstill.com/essays/junkyards-street-cuisine/) - Ethnic street food from around the world has gone mainstream. Talk about street food? Tamales cooked inside a hubcap over the open flames of a barrel fire stoked with woody products of all sorts, giving, of course, these junkyard tamales their distinct smokey flavor. The Junyards, aka, the Iron Triangle is a wild and grossly - [GLASER'S LAST HOURS](https://realstill.com/essays/glasers-last-hours/) - I like to preface things with the phrase, “Can you imagine?" probably because i take pictures of reality as a starting point, and, in reality, things aren't imagined, and can be captured, but, nevertheless, it produces the same questiom. As far as what's already known and published about Glaser's, why rehash? There is plenty of information about Glaser's around. - [GHOST](https://realstill.com/essays/ghost/) - Before getting to Ghost, here’s a piece from the Times in 1998, about a person dwelling in Van Courtlandt Park, a place in the far north Bronx, where these types of things can happen. “The police said Everett Henriquez had gone to Van Cortlandt Park for the quietude, digging a pied-a-terre into the soft earth, - [LAST BRONX BODEGA](https://realstill.com/essays/last-bronx-bodega/) - The Capellan Grocery, 383 East 138th Street, Mott Haven. - [ODDCHITECTURE](https://realstill.com/essays/oddchitecture/) - [PROLETARIAT FLAGS](https://realstill.com/essays/proletariat-flags/) - [TRUMPET CREEPER](https://realstill.com/essays/trumpet-creeper/) - [WILLIAMSBURG FLANEUR, 1980s](https://realstill.com/essays/williamsburg-flaneur-1980s/) - Shot for the hell of it, blocks from my home, beginning in the early 1980s. - [LIRR FLOAT BRIDGES & THE STORY OF A PICTURE (1986-1996)](https://realstill.com/essays/the-lirr-float-bridges/) - The Long Island Railroad Float Bridges were built in the Hunter's Point neighborhood of Queens, which, like my old neighborhood just south in Brooklyn, often had small residential sections dwarfed by the industry surrounding them. There's plenty of content on the net about this site, much of it is really worthwhile, and will spare me the regurgitation. I'll - [WILSON'S TAMALES & FAMILY](https://realstill.com/essays/wilsons-tamales-family/) - "Hot tamales make you jolly." - Marvin Wilson Somehow Marvin Wilson and his tamales stayed underneath the radar of media, and there is very little available to clebrate this man. These shots were taken in August, 2014, when the business was mostly run by his family. Mr. Wilson was doing ok, but was declining, and - [THIS LAST FALL](https://realstill.com/essays/this-last-fall/) - INTRODUCTION This Last Fall was shot over a period of twenty days beginning on Oct. 12th, 2022. 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. While shooting a three block road, Roxford, mostly bombed out - [THE THINKER TALKS](https://realstill.com/essays/the-thinker-talks/) - Let me just say this. My position is unique. Made of brass, i can withstand a lot, and i was put outside. I was given a prominent place, the top of the steps to the old main entrance, that's been closed for many years. These aren't the stairs in Rocky either, and, i'm, technically, in a - [THE STORE PATH](https://realstill.com/essays/the-store-path/) - I had been meaning to shoot the store for 30 years and I finally got a chance to shoot it over a period of time in 2019. While avoiding the local gangs, I couldn't help but notice the path that had been worn through the field by neighborhood people walking to the store. It's the - [THE SIDAWAY BRIDGE THROUGH TIME (1984-2012)](https://realstill.com/essays/the-sidaway-bridge-through-time-1984-2012/) - In a city of bridges, this is the only suspension bridge. It was also, for quite some time, the city’s longest. Spanning two continents, it was the longest in the world, connecting Africa and Poland. The internet has some good information about the Sidaway Bridge. Before the internet, site/sights like this were unknown even to - [THE LIBERTY DANCE](https://realstill.com/essays/the-liberty-dance/) - We all do it. Almost every day, in some way, we work for money. The more you make, the more freedom you have. Sometimes, though, you might see someone who really earns, what ain't much, for things that seem demeaning in a slum or ghetto setting, that is only a part of the world, but it's - [THE LAST SLAB (2017-2019)](https://realstill.com/essays/the-last-slab-2017-2019/) - Over the years, the open pit at the Hot Sauce Williams at East 79th Street and Carnegie, was a sight to count on. Their distinctive open pit outdoor burner and cooker provided the ribs sold at the restaurant. Always there, in that sense it’s taken for granted, as if it’s always gonna be there and - [THE LAST SHOT (2003-2012)](https://realstill.com/essays/the-last-shot-2003-2012/) - By 2003 the neighborhoods of North Brooklyn, Greenpoint and Williamsburg had been in gentrification mode for years, and by this time the level of gentrification was hyper, and North Brooklyn was its epicenter. Of course, as a neighborhood person, in the truest sense, like everybody else in my neighborhood that was, in 1999, basically the - [THE LAST HULETTS](https://realstill.com/essays/the-last-huletts/) - LTV Steel Hullers, Chicago 12/03 - the Chicago LTV Coke Plant along the Calumet River was supplied with its coal by barge that can come up from downstate Illinois over a system of rivers and canals. Both this facility and the one in the background - Acme Steel - closed in the Big Steel Recession of 2001 when - [THE ELECTRIC HULETT UNLOADERS (1977-2003)](https://realstill.com/essays/the-electric-hulett-unloaders-1977-2003/) - ERIE DOCK COMPANY (1977) Erie Rail Huletts, 1978. The three Wellman 17 ton unloaders along Old River in the Flats were about to be demolished after unloading iro ore for over sixty years. The ore wasn't going to the local steel mils, but the inland mills south of Cleveland. It's called the Old River Erie Ore Dock - [SLAP HAPPY](https://realstill.com/essays/slap-happy/) - “There's no business like show business.” Cagney shoved a grapefruit in Mae Clare’s face, creating lots of buzz, that quickly cooled, but froze that scene forever as film history. I presume whatever outrage one felt at the time, was mitigated by this classic comeback - look at all the people who were shot, stabbed, blown - [SELLER OF SOURSAP](https://realstill.com/essays/seller-of-soursap/) - On E. 135th St. in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx, below the Deegan expressway, soursop is for sale. One summer we met and talked quite a few times. Unfortunately neither of us knew what we were saying. But I learned about graviola, commonly called soursop. Guanabana, while not very illegal, the FDA has problems - [NEW YORK BADLANDS](https://realstill.com/essays/new-york-badlands/) - Normally associated with the west, Badlands are very rare in the east, except under certain unique conditions. Here we have badlands set on the shores of Lake Ontario in New York. Here, the landscape is photographed at night and, through, ultra-long time exposures and the full moon's illumination, I successfully furthered my specialty, illumination, by - [MAGART PATRIOT, 2023](https://realstill.com/essays/magart-patriot-2023/) - The junkyards, Willets point, Queens, 2019, in 2013 the city sold 23 acres of land in the iron triangle section of Queens, to build a retail more complex, and the age of Amazon. There were 23 acres of shops, salvage yards, and the ironworks with numerous workers. I shot this section for seven years, - [LOUIS MENDES IN THE 1980s](https://realstill.com/essays/louis-mendes-in-the-1980s/) - Louis in Times Square in 1988. Louis from the bus parking area at the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Louis in Times Square in 1988. Looking down 42nd Street from the Port Authority Bus Terminal in 1987. Loius sitting in his barber chair at his home, uptown, in 1988. - [JUNIOR'S MEMORIAL](https://realstill.com/essays/juniors-memorial/) - The murder of Lusando Guzman-Feliz, a.k.a., Junior, in the Belmont section of the Bronx on June, 2018, had tremendous impact, and being close to home, i made sure to drop by. Not since the murder of Katie Genovese in Queens, have people felt universally the impact on street crime.https://www.google.com/search? Why such impact? Digital video is cheap and it ## Multiform - [Joe Viante](https://realstill.com/multiform/joe-viante/) - Joe Viate at a bus stop on Euclud Svenue in East Cleveland, on his way to the Wolf's Den Strip Club and bar for his gig. June 8, 2015, is when i met Joe. I stopped when i saw him at the bus stop and did his picture. While talking amd sort of hitting it - [Booger Scrapping](https://realstill.com/multiform/booger-scrapping/) - Booger, a rare female scrapper, beats the plastic off any metal parts she finds with her hammer. She would stack whatever was available and climb up to the high ceilings to scavenge the last tidbits in the Victoreen Geiger Counter Company. Booger's lungs could always be heard, mixed in with the sounds of scrapping small stuff. Her actual name - [What We Want](https://realstill.com/multiform/what-we-want/) - Ray is making Slovenian sausage at Azman's Meats on St. Clair in, what once was, the largest Slovenian enclave in America. Custom smoked sausage is right at home in most eastern European countries - Poland, Hungary, Croatia, etc. - [What Price, Representation?](https://realstill.com/multiform/what-price-representation/) - In the 1973 documentary, The Battle of Chile, Argentine cameraman Leonard Hendrickson records his own death. As his camera films the military invading the streets of Santiago, one military officer takes out his pistol and coolly and deliberately murders Hendrickson. This, up until the late 1990s, was considered extremely dramatic and one of a kind. Now, with surveillance cameras and - [What Price, Audio](https://realstill.com/multiform/what-price-audio/) - A broken wrist was the price paid for another Buckey New Year, an annual event that i fully participate in, with multiple field recorders, where. thanks to digital, i place in different neighborhoods, in abandonobed homes, factories and churches, as well as, open areas like parks, dumps and wastelands. To give you an idea of - [They Won't Stop Asking](https://realstill.com/multiform/they-wont-stop-asking/) - Where ever the Picture Man exists, they call to him. It's a job, but only landscapes leave you whole and completely uncomprimised, by not having to deal with people. It's the only entity i want, and will heed to, instead of going to dirty old cities endlessly, and, perhaps for nor reason at all. That's why coming up here, or any other - [THE WEAVE](https://realstill.com/multiform/the-weave/) - The Weave, as explained by Trump, allows insights into his genius. A newspaper explains further - https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/01/us/elections/trump-speeches-weave.html - [The Taps of Joe Brick](https://realstill.com/multiform/the-taps-of-joe-brick/) - Joe Brick, 86 years old, is a brick recycler, a rare job, that takes old bricks that are not made anymore, and restores them for use when a builder or contractor needs to match the bricks from very old homes. Joe and his friend, Howard, both of whom, i call, the Brick Brothers, plays their taps while cleaning - [THE SOUND OF GENTRIFICATION](https://realstill.com/multiform/the-sound-of-gentrification/) - The sound of gentrification in Willimaburg, 2005. - [The Erie Tunnel](https://realstill.com/multiform/the-erie-tunnel/) - The Erie Freight Tunnel, Jersey City, 1997. The lens has been open for 45 minutes to absorb whatever light was down here at night, when locomotives and frieght cars approached the portal exit. This is the west portal, named Erie for the railroad that owned it. The east portal is named for the comapny that buit it in - [The Bird Man of Kingsbridge Road](https://realstill.com/multiform/the-bird-man-of-kingsbridge-road/) - His name is Stanley and he used to be on Kingsbridge Road around the Armory all the time. Before seeing him, you could hear his distinct calls. Stanley moved out of Kingsbrdge Heights and lives close to the Bronx Zoo, where i last saw him at the waterfall park at 183rd Street. - [The Bergen Tunnels](https://realstill.com/multiform/the-bergen-tunnels/) - East portal, south tracks, Bergen Tunnels, Hoboken, 1998. Passenger cars are pushed in by a diesel locomotive, followed by electric rail cars exiting the tunnel. West portal, south tracks, Bergen Tunnels, Jersey City, 1997. Passenger cars are pushed through the tunnel into Hoboken by diesel locomtives. East portal, north tracks, Bergen Tunnels, Hoboken, 1999. The camera was rigged to a signal, steadied - [Success As Armor](https://realstill.com/multiform/success-as-armor/) - Superior Avenue in East Cleveland in 2004 was a really rough time in a city that only knows rough times, securing the top position of cities with highest poverty. Say what you want about money, on its most basic level, it does provide all the answers. Remembering the words of Mr. T, who was no - [Saint Rocco](https://realstill.com/multiform/saint-rocco/) - At the center of the Feast is Saint Rocco, who, many Italians, and Italian-Americans honor. This, of course is a time a great joy and it's a celebration, as fireworks, music and song acompany the procession in its travels throught the neighborhood. The staue of Saint Rocco is brought, once a year, out into the streets that surround the church named after - [Nothing](https://realstill.com/multiform/nothing/) - At the heart of existential thought is the ultimate pointlessness of every thing. As an example look at the exemplary career of TwoShoes. After 46 years of solid photographic production, to wind up in a toxic waste site surrounded by dummies, is truly absurd. Ever been up against this? Forty-six years is a long time. A plastic bag floats in - [Notes & Quotes](https://realstill.com/multiform/notes-quotes/) - Heroisch Then in 1895, German pharmaceuticals giant Bayer came out with a new wonder drug, more powerful than aspirin, that worked phenomenally well as a cough suppressant. Its name was heroisch, meaning strong, or heroic, but in the United States it was marketed under a different brand name: Heroin. It's That Simple “We wanted to stay - [My Last Girlfriend](https://realstill.com/multiform/my-last-girlfriend/) - Her name was Lorraine, and she was something. - [Like MaMa Lily Says:](https://realstill.com/multiform/like-mama-lily-says/) - MaMa Lily, den mom for the Scrappers of the east side of Cleveland, so, she should know. Like she says... - [LGA Flight Path Over Queens](https://realstill.com/multiform/lga-flight-path-over-queens/) - A flight arrives from the south over East Elmhurst, Queens, doing a decent job of mitigating its noise - but the repitition will only be interrupted once the wind changes direction. When a jet wants to show its prowess, it sounds like this. - [Jose](https://realstill.com/multiform/jose/) - Jose, playing/singinging at the Dyckman Marina boat ramp area. - [JFK](https://realstill.com/multiform/jfk/) - RealStill accepts real challenges as a condition of life, and RealStill's most cherished value - freedom, similar to the words of JFK. - [Feast Jubilee](https://realstill.com/multiform/feast-jubilee/) - In Williamsburg, Brooklyn during the summer, Our Lady of Mount Carmel holds their annual Feast of the Giglio. Paradisio Giglio is heard continually these weeks and here at the Jubilee Feast of 2000 - [Cinci Hooves](https://realstill.com/multiform/cinci-hooves/) - For someone from Brooklyn visiting Cincinnati, this is a treat - The John Roebling Suspension Bridge. Here we have the first large Roebling bridge over a river, and it was built well before the Brooklyn Bridge, completed in 1866, and contained just about everything that would be enlarged and become one of the greatest bridges in all the world in - [Cleveland Absurd](https://realstill.com/multiform/cleveland-absurd/) - Ernest, the resident philospher of the Forgotten Triangle is often a source i go to for conversations of philosophical, even socialogical truth. They say he's dead, but i'll believe it when i see it. - [Cinci Crows](https://realstill.com/multiform/cinci-crows/) - One twilight evening I arrived at Jackson Park which has a dominant view of the Over-the- Rhine neighborhood in Cincinnati and wanted to shoot it during twilight and the night. Just as I got there i heard a large committee of crows. I got my field recorder, at the time a tascam DAP-1 with a beautiful - [Cinci Barges](https://realstill.com/multiform/cinci-barges/) - While shooting Roebling bridge in Cincinnati during a Sunday afternoon i saw 15 barges heading upriver and recorded the sound as they passed below from the deck of the bridge directly above them. When I looked down I saw each barge was loaded with iron ore which meant one thing, it was heading up River to one of the steel mills most - [Alt-Right Performance Art](https://realstill.com/multiform/alt-right-performance-art/) - What had been going on for years, that began to crystalize with Trump who was an expert reality television star, was right-wing performance art, that a few years later, would make its way into the Capital, with the Matt Gaetz Gas Mask performances, when he is was supposed to be doing the work of government. That was the thing about ## Galleries - [Fall Town](https://realstill.com/bwg_gallery/b-fall-town-2/) - [STEEL (1995-2023)](https://realstill.com/bwg_gallery/steel-1995-2023/) - [TWILIGHT/FALL TOWN MIX (1988-2023)](https://realstill.com/bwg_gallery/twilight-fall-town-mix-1988-2023/) - [THE DEUCE (1985-1995)](https://realstill.com/bwg_gallery/the-deuce-1986-1994/) - [TWILIGHT TOWN (1988-2003)](https://realstill.com/bwg_gallery/twilight-town-1988-2003/) - [DIRTY OLD TOWN (1977-1988)](https://realstill.com/bwg_gallery/dirty-old-town-1977-1988/) - [NIGHT FALLS (2001-2021)](https://realstill.com/bwg_gallery/night-falls-2001-2021/) - [JERSEY RUN](https://realstill.com/bwg_gallery/jersey-run/) - [BUTTE](https://realstill.com/bwg_gallery/butte/) - [BLAST FURNACE MOON](https://realstill.com/bwg_gallery/blast-furnace-moon/) - [WINDOWS (1984-2024)](https://realstill.com/bwg_gallery/windows-1984-2024/) - [B/Q](https://realstill.com/bwg_gallery/b-q/) - [JUST THIS LAST FALL, 2022](https://realstill.com/bwg_gallery/just-this-last-fall-2022/) - [HONEST SCRAP (1980-2024)](https://realstill.com/bwg_gallery/honest-scrap-1980-2024/) - [THIS BAD LAND](https://realstill.com/bwg_gallery/this-bad-land/) - [FEAST](https://realstill.com/bwg_gallery/feast/) - [The Bar](https://realstill.com/bwg_gallery/the-bar/) - [ICE](https://realstill.com/bwg_gallery/ice/) - [E-BAD WATER BOTTOM](https://realstill.com/bwg_gallery/bad-water-bottom/) - [E-RNC 2016](https://realstill.com/bwg_gallery/rnc-2016/) - [WILLIAMSBURG NATIONAL MONUMENT](https://realstill.com/bwg_gallery/williamsburg-national-monument/) - [BLUESTONE FALLS](https://realstill.com/bwg_gallery/bluestone-falls/) - [BRISTLECONE PINE](https://realstill.com/bwg_gallery/bristlecone-pine/) ## Gallery tags - [truth](https://realstill.com/bwg_tag/truth) - [tom_sullens](https://realstill.com/bwg_tag/tom_sullens) ## Gallery Share - [Image](https://realstill.com/bwg_share/image/) ## Categories - [Uncategorized](https://realstill.com/category/uncategorized/) ## Categories - [Books](https://realstill.com/slider/books/) - [essays](https://realstill.com/slider/essays/) ## Categories - [Books](https://realstill.com/introduction/books/) - [essays](https://realstill.com/introduction/essays/) ## Gallery Tags - [truth](https://realstill.com/bwg_tag/truth/) - [tom_sullens](https://realstill.com/bwg_tag/tom_sullens/)