Recently, someone asked me to reflect on what I’ve learned from Signal Cleveland’s photowalk project.
Did the residents and I take pictures of the same things or did we focus on different things? What did that mean?
I think of a photowalk I went on with Jean Paul Hernandez in Clark-Fulton. As we walked down the street he grew up on, he counted the vacant lots. To me, they weren’t especially remarkable. Open fields with overgrown grass.
Then, Jean Paul recalled all his old neighbors who lived in the homes that used to stand on those lots.
When I wander the city to take pictures, I see everything out-of-context. I think about what a particular scene would mean if it were isolated from its surroundings in a picture. The folks who’ve taken me on these photowalks are looking at the same things, but they see them through their own personal connection to the places and people.
In a grassy field outside Michael J. Zone Rec Center, Makela Hayford sees an intangible sense of community she found after moving across town to Gordon Square.
Vaiva Neary sees Cleveland’s tenacity represented in a tree clinging onto the eroding Lake Erie shore in North Collinwood, digging its roots in deeper with each winter squall that tears at its branches.
I might have walked past those things if I were on my own, but they helped me see something more in them.
When I hand people cameras for a photowalk, they often end up photographing memories and hopes. It’s not that they’re documenting their neighborhoods, they’re pulling us into how they experience them.
That became especially clear to me after my photowalks in Clark-Fulton and North Collinwood. I went on two photowalks, guided by different people, in each of those neighborhoods. In Clark-Fulton, I even stopped by some of the same spots in both photowalks.
But the pictures couldn’t be more different.
When I thought about putting together a wrap-up essay about these first seven photowalks, I knew I didn’t want to group the pictures by neighborhood. You’ve already seen that. I’m more curious about what these pictures can tell us when they’re all mixed together.
What connections can we make between pictures of different neighborhoods? What contrasts can we see in pictures of the same neighborhoods?
If these pictures are all little glimpses into personal experiences of different parts of Cleveland, then placed next to each other, they become like a poem, each line written by a different author. We get a more nuanced look at the city this way.
I think of André Dailey’s picture of a group of friends hanging out in the shade outside an apartment building in North Collinwood. There’s an almost ethereal beam of light coming through the trees, but to André, the picture is bittersweet. He used to run into the same group at a nearby McDonald’s, chatting for hours over coffee, before it was torn down. Yet another example of residents losing a gathering space in the neighborhood and being forced to adapt, he said.
Many of these pictures are like that: beautiful from one perspective, but more complicated from another.
That’s my favorite part about this project. We end up with a story that doesn’t tell us what to believe or how to feel. It’s more ambiguous, giving each of us space to bring our own experiences and draw our own conclusions about what it’s like to live here.
These aren’t the kind of pictures I’d normally take as a journalist. That’s their strength. Their unfiltered honesty makes them more real than any picture I would have taken on my own.
Of course, this is far from a complete picture of Cleveland, and this project is just getting started. I’m curious to see what comes from visiting more neighborhoods.
If you want to invite me to take photos in your part of Cleveland, sign up for a photowalk by filling out the form here.
More information about the pictures
You can see who took each picture, along with some more details about the places and people in them, down below.
Thanks to CatchLight and Report for America for supporting my work as Signal Cleveland’s visual journalist. A few years back, they partnered to create a program that places photojournalists in local newsrooms throughout the country. Signal Cleveland and I joined that program this year.
- Sunlight peeks through trees in yard in North Collinwood. Monday, July 21, 2025. Credit: Michael Indriolo
- Wildflowers in a once-vacant lot in North Collinwood. André Dailey’s neighbor bought the lot next to her home and started nurturing a wildflower garden. Monday, July 21, 2025. Credit: André Dailey
- A garden one of Jean Paul Hernandez’s neighbors planted in the vacant lot next to her home in Clark-Fulton. Friday, Aug. 1, 2025. Credit: Jean Paul Hernandez
- Tay lays on a park bench at Michael J. Zone Rec Center in Gordon Square. Wednesday, July 23, 2025. Credit: Michael Indriolo
- A basketball hoop set up on the street outside St. Rocco’s Parish in Clark-Fulton. Friday, Aug. 1, 2025. Credit: Jean Paul Hernandez
- A young man rides his bike outside Michael J. Zone Rec Center in Gordon Square. Wednesday, July 23, 2025. Credit: Makela Hayford
- CJ watches a game of pickup basketball from the sidelines of the basketball court at Michael J. Zone Rec Center in Gordon Square. Wednesday, July 23, 2025. Credit: Michael Indriolo
- Patty Pikus looks out at Lake Erie from a bench in one of North Collinwood’s private beach clubs. Thursday, July 17, 2025. Credit: Michael Indriolo
- Vaiva Neary’s favorite tree leaning over the eroding beach into Lake Erie at the East Shore Park Club in North Collinwood. Thursday, July 17, 2025. Credit: Vaiva Neary
- A page from Griffin Randle-Neely’s notes written after a photowalk in Brooklyn Centre. Griffin taped two pictures onto the page. The first shows his mother Ebonie Randle with neighbors, and the second shows a mural on a tattoo shop on Dennison Avenue. He wrote short reflections about each picture. Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. Credit: Griffin Randle-Neely
- Windows on Tabernacle Baptist Church on East 156th Street in North Collinwood. Monday, July 21, 2025. Credit: Jennifer Mischer
- Dresses, rugs and other accessories hang in a store window along Lorain Avenue. Thursday, July 24, 2025. Credit: Beth Piwkowski
- A brother at St. Rocco parish in Clark-Fulton talks with his mother on the phone. Tuesday, July 29, 2025. Credit: Michael Indriolo
- Xavier Alvarez holds his puppy Luna. He brought her to the park at St. Rocco’s parish in Clark-Fulton to train and play with her. Friday, Aug. 1, 2025. Credit: Michael Indriolo
- A car painted with a Puerto Rican flag drives down Fulton Road in Clark-Fulton. Friday, Aug. 1, 2025. Credit: Jean Paul Hernandez
- Murals cover the outside of the Party Rican in Clark-Fulton. The building used to be a funeral home, but it’s not an event space. Tuesday, July 29, 2025. Credit: Leah Santosuosso
- Taz Hines, Monnie Hines and Joseline Cruz hang out on the porch of a home in Clark-Fulton. Friday, Aug. 1, 2025. Credit: Jean Paul Hernandez
- Children on a porch in the residential blocks around Johnny’s Bar in Clark-Fulton. Tuesday, July 29, 2025. Credit: Leah Santosuosso
- Friends hang out in the shade outside an apartment building off Lakeshore Boulevard in North Collinwood. Monday, July 21, 2025. Credit: André Dailey
- Craig Egler fixes a generator outside an apartment building on East 156th Street in North Collinwood. Monday, July 21, 2025. Credit: André Dailey
- A fisherman packs up his gear after fishing off the shore at Edgewater Park. Wednesday, July 23, 2025. Credit: Makela Hayford
- The waterslide at the Halloran Park swimming pool. Thursday, July 24, 2025. Credit: Beth Piwkowski
- A row of homes on the edge of Halloran Park. Thursday, July 24, 2025. Credit: Michael Indriolo
- A home on Archwood Avenue. Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. Credit: Charlierose Neely
- A friend rides his bike alongside the Super Garden Kidz while they walk and take pictures in Brooklyn Centre. Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. Credit: Brooklynn White
- A motorcyclist drives toward Lorain Avenue from a residential street. Thursday, July 24, 2025. Credit: Beth Piwkowski