Street Videography draws inspiration from the great Street Photographers such as  Will Evans,  Gordon Parks and Baltimore’s own Martha Cooper. But with video I press into documentary narrative but in a way I aiming for the   freeze moment impact, a kind of core boring of that time, but also to press upon that moment as well. 
 
This has been an accidental coalescence, going from one project to the next. I found myself  launching The Speak for Peace workshop, where we interview community activists, print their image on a poster with a QV code in an ambitious effort to create street level dialogue. This year a version was done online where we brought in leaders as guests.  There was also the mural film project, commissioned by the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts, where I found myself playing the part of  the silent conduit for 20 art pieces and how they interact with the street-ecosystem. And finally the Health Care for the Homeless commissioned short documentary to capture the realities of someone who went from homeless drug addiction to cleaning up and finding an apartment, a job and enrolled in college. With each shoot, I realize tha the street is the heart of any community and yet we seal it off whether it be physically with walls or with our routines, which makes sense why in the streets is where we find the most evidence of  dispair and hope. 


  • BYFA interview.jpg
    BYFA interview.jpg
    My crew from BYFA after shooting Erricka Bridgeford for Speak for Peace.
  • Street Stories
    Street Stories
    A shot from the workshop I lead, Speak for Peace, offered through the Mellon-funded Baltimore Youth Film Arts Program
  • Baltimore Mural Project
    This was designed to be shown on a bus of executives coming through Baltimore to visit Philadelphia's mural project. The idea was to get them intrequed to revisit Baltimore. But for me it was a chance to wallow in something that I always cheered on from passing car window. More murals please. What I discovered was to spend time with them was to see how the art isn't contained to the wall, that is, the art includes the street it looks out onto, as if playing off the surroundings, ranging from joyous, tragic, surreal and defiant.
  • Pushing for Change for our Children
    While some of this wouldn't be considered street video (some of the footage was shoot on the street others were interiors) this is an example of an editing job handed to me, like a junk drawer dumped on my table. There were plenty of interguing bits, photographers and cell phone video and the audio created by someone else. I had to put it together and quick. (two weeks) This was done just before Covid and now recall fondly shooting the daycare, being on my hands knees getting the kids eye view.
  • Challenge 4 Change Thanksgiving Message
    This grew out of me meeting Uncle T on Monument Street. He saw during an unrelated shoot and pulled me inside his store front community outreach operation. There, he showed me a gallery of death, life-size posters of young men killed within a six block radius of his facility. He had about 40 photos. From that point on, I've engaged him in projects, including the Speak for Peace project where he is included in the video. This particular video was a piece I did for him for him to use and illustrates the kind of grassroots work that unfolds, many times with no media coverage. I often tell my students, we are our own media. .
  • Joules Fallier works the corner of North and Pennsylvania Avenues.
    Joules Fallier works the corner of North and Pennsylvania Avenues.
    Setting up ceramic guns and asking passers by to place a weapon with a victim's name on it in the sand proved to be a powerful catalyst to talk about people's experience with violence. The sheer amount of stories that poured fourth reveals the prevalence of violence in our everyday lives.
  • Bury our Guns
    Password is Abell
  • Speak for Peace workshop
    This workshop, offered through Baltimore Youth Film Arts Program, is an experiment, fusing the goal of exposing young upstarts to digital storytelling with street activism producing rather unpredictable results. The idea is to get activists and residents to speak to people on the street, specifically on the issues of violence and its repercussions. We would ask them to imagine that they are on the poster and with some sci-fi magic they could appear to tell someone on their way to some place they should not go. What would they tell them. We then edited the videos to two minute shorts, printed posters with QV codes, which when activated would play on their phones. Although in its infancy, the poster project has struck a nerve as stores offered window space and others have stepped forward to participate.
  • A Poster for Peace
    A Poster for Peace
    Our Speak for Peace class made it to the next level when the MTA agreed to allowed these up at bus stops. Erricka Bridgeford, featured here, posted that she had been in national media, featured in a film, done a Ted Talk, but get her face on a bus stop and then her kids pay attention.
  • From Coal to Diamond
    Commissioned to create a short video to play at Health Care for the Homeless annual fundraising dinner, this project is designed to fire the crowd up for a "giving auction" after a large meal. I have done four of these, but this one I was allowed to focus on one person's struggle. As a storyteller I knew I wanted to cover ground in a short bit of time, film Venessa at the storage facility at a dinner, walking down the street, getting much appreciated dental care and riding the bus. All these details I knew would create a more dynamic feel and allow the audience to relate to her. Can't say for sure but Health Care for the Homeless broke a record raising more than $350,000.
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