Searching for W. Eugene Smith's Pittsburgh and hoping to find myself along the way.
After 15 years working on a photo project, my daughter along with me every step of the way, I pulled into Pittsburgh to drop her off for college. Feeling my life
somewhat over and leaving more than a piece of my heart in that college dorm
room.
The next morning waiting for the hotel elevator with a heavy heart, I looked out
the 6th floor window and saw an interesting area. The homes and neighborhood
cut off by a major road. I wondered of the lives there, cut off from that road not
unlike my life about to be cut off from my daughter or at least that was what it felt
like.
It wasn’t long before I revisited some of W. Eugene Smith’s Pittsburgh work. A
photo he had taken of Ophelia and Hamlet Street a block away from that hotel
window, and so it began. As I was searching for Smith’s Pittsburgh, a wrong turn led me
into the neighborhood where Teenie Harris spent so many years photographing. I met and photographed a mother and daughter, a group of young kids and so it began searching for the ghosts of Teenie and Smith and hoping to find myself along the way.