Home»Alleys - The Series

Alley: noun, plural alleys.

1. a passage, as through a continuous row of houses, permitting access from the street to backyards, garages, etc., 2. a narrow back street…

Whenever I travel to a new city or town, I like to get off the main streets to see the backsides of properties that line the alleys. Just like we wear masks to hide our true selves from public scrutiny, our houses often have masks that on one side present one picture of its inhabitants to the world and in the rear another more revealing image of who lives there. Alleys can be the places of torn screen doors and broken steps; they may be the places where we plant our gardens and grow our flowers, but they also are where we dump our trash and park our derelict cars. From the alley we can see porches stacked with lawn chairs or piled with children’s toys. They are the places of private-property and keep-out signs. Alleys are the locations of air conditioning units, exhaust fans, and unwanted furniture. Some alleys are spider-webbed with electrical wires connected to houses crowned with satellite dishes. Regardless of the picture alleys present, I find beauty in those places and inspiration to capture them in camera. This gallery contains a collection of digital images of alleys around the state.

Many of these photos were on exhibit with two other photographers at Gallery@Second in Harrisburg in 2015.