All posts by David Schalliol

Scale in the Bronx, New York City

I’ve just returned from a trip to New York City with Michael Carriere to work on our project exploring re-imagining the built environment. The following photographs are supplementary images from the Bronx. Some additional images are viewable on flickr.

Special thanks belong to Alex Chandler, Grace Madden, Lydia Bell, Sarah Nelson Wright, Melanie Jelacic and a variety of other helpful people.

Metal Recycling, Cooperative Housing, Bronx

Colin Powell Handball Wall

The Bronx

Scale

Public Housing in the Bronx, Manhattan

Woman Walking, Bona Pizza, Public Housing

Auto Repair,

Watching, Observation

As both a sociologist and a photographer, it’s hard not to think a lot about observation. While I haven’t systematically addressed the topic, I have been slowly acquiring photographs of people quietly focusing their attention on a clear subject when I’m out in the world doing the same thing. I’m particularly intrigued by the relationship between the internal and external action in the scenes. I’ve included a few of those images below.

Watching, Residential Juxtaposition

Watching, Crawford Generating Station

Watching the ABLA Demoltion

Watching the Blaze

Watching, Three Abandoned

Watching the Maneuvering from Above Ardoyne

Watching, Lafayette Building

Recent Work at The Op Shop on July 25th

Running Through the Demolition Site
Running Through the Demolition Site – Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 2010.

A small solo show of my work from Chicago and eleven other locations around the country will be featured on Sunday, July 25 at the newest location of The Opportunity Shop, 5225 S. Harper Ave. The show will be open from 12:00-5:30pm, with a dinner open to the public on site starting around 6pm.

P.S. While you’re down in Hyde Park, you can also check out the Celebrate Hyde Park Music and Art Festival, which will be running from noon until 9pm on 53rd Street, with headlining act WAR.

UPDATE:

Thanks to everyone who came out to the opening. Here is a photograph from the show.

Recent Work at The Opportunity Shop

Belfast on Eleventh Night and the Twelfth

View of Belfast, Burning Bonfires Throughout Protestant Neighborhoods

From July 10-14, I explored Belfast, Northern Ireland with Brian Ashby, Ben Kolak and some extremely helpful Belfast residents.

The weekend is particularly important to the region because of The Twelfth. The Twelfth is a day during which members of the Orange Order, composed of Northern Ireland’s Unionist Protestant population, march throughout the city to celebrate a historical Protestant victory over Catholics (and to achieve some contemporary objectives). Most controversially, they march through the city’s Republican Catholic neighborhoods in that spirit of victory. As one might expect, the marches are not received well in those neighborhoods, particularly given centuries of conflict and the more recent Troubles. As of July 15, riots continue.

The Twelfth is typically preceded by Eleventh Night, on which Unionist Protestants ignite massive bonfires throughout the city for historical and (as is clear in this photo set) very contemporary political reasons. Because the Eleventh Night fell on a Sunday this year, the bonfires were not lit until midnight on the Twelfth. As such, the marches were held just a few hours after the bonfires died down.

I’ve tried to set those events against a backdrop of the physical elements of Belfast that reflect the city’s often starkly segregated social landscape.

A selection of images are below, and you may also see additional images on my official Belfast series page or an unedited selection on flickr.

BBQ 11th 3PM

Unionist Bonfire, Aggressive Statements

"Prepared for Peace, Ready for War"

Burning Unionist Bonfire, Temporarily Boarded Up Homes

Watching the Bonfire Burn, Union Jack

Police Block off a Street in Advance of an Orangemen Parade

"End Sectarian Marches"

Orangemen Parade Marches Through Demonstration

"Peace Wall" Opened to Let Orangemen into a Protestant Neighborhood

Running from the Police Line

The Irish Flag on New Lodge High-rise

Photography at Lula, Urbanautica

Those of you who have been to Lula in the last month know that my photos are included in the Spring 2010 show, which is curated by Anders Nilsen and Marianne Fairbanks. The show focuses on the economy and housing and pairs my images with work by two other Chicago artists: Alyssa Miserendino and Alysia Kaplan.

If you’re not ready to head to Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood right now, there’s a nice feature on the Isolated Building Studies at the Italian photography compendium Urbanautica. The website also recently featured new work by another Chicago photographer, Dave Jordano.

Urbanautica

The Row Houses of Baltimore, Maryland

As someone who primarily grew up in the Midwest and has called Chicago home for several years, cities dominated by row houses seem alien. Among those row house cities, Baltimore stands apart for the relative wholeness of these districts — even of those in tremendous disrepair.

Certainly, many portions of the city have been dramatically altered by demolition and redevelopment projects, but the ability to walk down a formerly residential street flanked by uninterrupted derelict row houses is unique to me. In a city like Philadelphia, there would be more pockmarks. Elsewhere, like Camden, NJ, those pockmarks may even dominate the landscape.

Such Baltimore blocks demonstrate that the city has clearly resisted quite a bit of demolition, but it appears the tide is now turning. The first of the three images below are of a block that will soon endure the demolition of 67 buildings. Given the current economic climate and the condition of the neighborhood, I would be surprised if anything fills those slots for years to come. If this block becomes precedent, the city could look very different in just a few years.

Perlman Place, Baltimore

Abandoned Row Houses

Owl's Nest, Row Houses