Chris
Specht has been a member
of Base Art
Gallery since November 2000. He has also shown his work at The Mockbee's
annual S.O.S. Art show and exhibited with Liberated Souls. A northern
Kentucky native, he has lived in Northside for 10 months.
Salvage Ethnography
The majority of these photos were taken in early spring of 2003. The
power line series was shot on East 12th and 13th Streets in Over-the-Rhine.
The boarded up row houses are on Glencoe Avenue in Mt. Auburn. I drove
down 13th Street (back before the city barricaded it) many times before
I decided to walk through with my camera. The thing that struck me about
the power lines is the sheer number of them connecting some barely inhabitable
buildings to the outside world. That, and the thought of telemarketers
calling these people to offer them more free hours of AOL, or a subscription
to the Enquirer, or maybe a higher limit on their credit cards.
In the case of Glencoe, I began photographing
it shortly after I discovered it. It sits in a ravine just north of
Christ Hospital. I've been told that cops are afraid to go down there.
One day I found parts of stripped cars half buried in snow in an old
parking lot. The steep grade of the street makes some wonderful shadows.
It has all the characteristics of a ghost town - surreal, dangerous,
and very compelling. Recently I read that a woman wants to renovate
the row houses and sell them as upscale condos. Good luck to her!
questions can be directed
to: bughousevideo@yahoo.com