Postcards from the Providence Project

Erik and Adrienne. Photo by Jesse Banks III

In 2005 the Rhode Island Photographic Survey set out on a one-year project to make photographs in each of Providence's 25 neighborhoods. With funding from a grant from the Rhode Island Foundation and a partnership with New Urban Arts, we set forth. Myself, three paid artist-assistants, an 8x10 camera, a GPS device, a digital audio recorder, even more cameras, a dream, and a map to see what we could see of our home city. This project was the result. We exhibited at New Urban Arts in the spring of 2006.

See the geotagged map

Postcards

South Water Street. This is the sign we set out whenever we’re on the job...

Greetings from Providence!
Or should I say, "What Cheer? Netop!" It seems apt to me that this quirky little city should have its motto this non-sensical question, preparing you for the odd things that will surely follow. We didn't seek out oddities (they find you anyway); we wanted to get out and see what we could see. Being photographers, we would, in the process, "misuse Heaven's blessed sunshine" by making pictures. That is Nathaniel Hawthorne's wonderful phrase. More from Hawthorne later. Over one year, we traveled throughout Providence's twenty-five neighborhoods; made some 422 8x10 negatives and many more small ones. We took notes, made friends, and geo-tagged each picture. Adrienne recorded audio. What is presented here is a selection of these efforts.

Moonrise over Al’s His & Hers, Manton Ave...

Greetings from Olneyville.

“Hey I know you” this rather scruffy looking guy says from across the street. “I seen you over on the other side.” “Oh...?” I say tentatively. The other side. The other side of what? The street? The other side of town? There was that guy we met on Wickenden street a couple of months ago, but no, he was much older. The other side of our mortal existence? Maybe I’m about to get hit by a bus and this guy has been sent to guide me into the next life. That would be something. I try to get a closer look as he crosses the street towards us, keeping an eye out for a bus. “Yeah, you get around, I see you all over” he continues as he comes up to me. He asks some questions about what we’re doing and he tells me he lives “down that way” pointing vaguely in the direction of a clump of trees beyond the parking lot across the street. “Somebody robbed my stuff a few nights ago”. I tell him I’m sorry to hear that. “My street name is Cowboy,” he says shaking my hand. His glance moves past me to a garbage strewn patch of grass. “Hey, that’s my sweater, I’d better gets my sweater back”.

The Arnold Block on Washington St. One of my favorites because it’s only about 10 feet deep...

Greetings from the Downtown neighborhood

Where the population has grown by 218 since 1990, and the median family income is $42,558.

There are four churches downtown. There are at least 25 in South Providence. An urban legend says that one church in the city cannot be photographed for some supernatural reason. We haven't found it yet.

One of those four, Cathedral Square, is the city's great disaster of urban renewal. Once, Weybosset St. and Westminster St. met here. In the 1970s, with the best of intentions (the PPS Library has the original report, an interesting read), the thought was to save pedestrians from automobile traffic chaos. Our survey doesn't often do re-photography, but the Preservation Society collection's historical image is such a great picture that we gave it a go. We include the shabby IM Pei fountain [Fountain of Life--A Memorial to the Unknown Child] for the current context.

The photographer Mark Klett has raised re-photography to an art form, but applying his methods to urban areas is difficult as significant features are often drastically altered. In this case, the spot I needed to stand is now occupied by the auditorium. The plaza seems more a memorial to the unknown parking lot than anything else. The statue of Mayor Doyle, which once occupied the junction, now stands forlornly on a concrete plinth off of Weybosset Street.

In August we took a break and went downtown to shoot the Shriner’s Parade with the other pros...

Ponch and Jon and friends at the Shriner’s Parade...

Don’t forget to check out our new Bargain Bin...

The population of the Valley neighborhood grew by 28% between 1990 and 2000. That is the largest growth. The smallest? Hope. -13%.

Our Lady of the Rosary Feast Day, Fox Point

Greetings from Fox Point

On the evening of April 17, 1941, with the world going to war, The Providence City Council held a debate:

Councilman Frederick S. Barnes, Democratic floor leader, had proposed changing the city's seal to show the correct number of white men in Williams' canoe -- he said it was four. As early as 1845, the seal had shown two white men in the canoe being greeted by Native Americans on the shore. Other seals showed the same scene, but with three, or four, or even six white men in the canoe. The number of men in the boat depicted in the painting hanging in City Hall?

Four.

After a caustic debate, the decision was unanimous: It was a canoe with four white men, Williams in the bow, being greeted by the Native Americans. A triumph.

How many Native Americans were on the shore? No discussion was noted.

Greetings from the Jewelry District

Some of our urban spaces are planned, others happen, and most are shaped by what came before. Many street corners are now, in fact, the intersection of Walgreens and CVS, and our houses have all sprouted ears tilted attentively to the southwest sky.

Hawthorne (as promised) in the voice daguerreotypist Holgrave from The House of the Seven Gables:

"Shall we never, never get rid of this Past! It lies upon the Present like a giant's dead body...A Dead Man sits on all our judgement-seats, and living judges do but search out and repeat his decisions. We read in Dead Men's books. We laugh at Dead Men's jokes and cry at Dead Men's pathos!... Whatever we seek to do, of our own free motion, a Dead Man's icy hand obstructs us!

Each generation should be allowed and expected to build its own houses...I doubt whether our public edifices ought to be built of such permanent materials as stone or brick. It were better that they should crumble to ruin once in twenty years..."

Along Cranston St., West End neighborhood.

Yes indeed, and thank you as well to these great folks who made this project possible:

The Rhode Island Foundation
Rhode Island State Council on the Arts
New Urban Arts
Sprint Systems of Photography for their continued support of both my work and the program at NUA
Paul Artz for his friendship and the use of his Deardorff V8
and Rebecca for her love and support.

City data cited from the Providence Plan website.

Adrienne and Deardorff in Roger Williams Park.

Special Thanks to:
Jesse Banks III and Tyler Denmead at NUA
and especially the Artist-Assistants for their energy and creativity:
   Pedro Gonzalez
   Tiffany Pires
   Adrienne Adeyemi