Alleys and Ruins: The Book
25 years of urban night photography: a journey through grit, beauty, and survival, told through images and stories of life in the shadows.
For over two decades I wandered through alleys, ruins, and forgotten corners of American cities, always at night and often alone, with lighting equipment, chasing away the decay.
I began photographing these places in the middle of a personal collapse. What started as an escape became something else: a lifeline and a way back. The more I searched through the grime, the haunting ruins and derelict alleys, the more I found unexpected beauty in the shadows. And while I was out trying to redeem these forgotten places, the stories started piling up... the strange, often surreal things that happen in the corners people avoid. I wrote them all down from the very beginning.
This book gathers the most powerful of those images and stories: the moments of danger, grace, humor, and transformation that unfolded along the way.
Alleys and Ruins is both a retrospective of this celebrated series of photographs and a personal reckoning: part art book, part literary memoir, and entirely original.
Expected release mid 2026
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Beautiful hi-res images from the Alleys & Ruins and Light Paintings, formatted for both phone and desktop.
The book will feature over 300 photographs and dozens of true stories from 25 years of shooting across the U.S. and Canada.
There are two parallel stories:
One explains how I came to become a person who would devote themselves to wandering a city's most dangerous corners in the middle of the night and decide, “Yes! This is where I want to plant my camera and flash my bright lights for the next 3 hours. Hope nothing bad happens!”
The other story is the collection of things that happen in these places when a man does such a thing, consistently for 25 years.
Cover photo during the day
Sample story from Alleys and Ruins
Alleys & Ruins no. 151, Razor
2017, Philadelphia, PA, 10:30pm
I'm preparing for the shoot that would become “Razor”, mounting my 50 year old Hasselblad to my equally old Gitzo tripod when two guys come out of the shadows and surprise us.
“What is this, man? What y’all think you doin’ back here?” they look around at us, at our gear and the other guy says, “The hell y’all settin’ up back here?”
We freeze, my heart rate goes up a notch. We're in Harrowgate, one of Philly's most notoriously crime ridden neighborhoods. And deep in a completely secluded dead end back alley. I'm hoping they're not hostile.
I glance at my assistants and they're looking back nervously. I raise my hands slightly, palms out, voice calm. “Hey, sorry. We’re just setting up for a photo shoot. I'm gonna light up the alley and take a picture.” I say smiling and friendly. “No harm meant.”
“Photos? At this hour? Man, we saw them flashes. Thought somebody was messin’ with our spot.”
The air is clearing and the other guy says, “Yeah, nah, we cool. We got a music studio right there in that buildin’. We do beats, vocals, all that.”
Turns out they’re both chill and friendly. One of the guys helping me, Andrew, wants to check out their studio and they’re happy to oblige. They head off and I resume preparing the shot.
The lighting scheme usually comes quickly to me. Placing the tripod and locking the camera in place is often what takes the longest (outside of exposure times).
I finally lock it all down, and click the shutter open. It's going to be a 35-minute exposure and I’ll want to do at least three so I know I’ve got it right. I’m shooting film after all, and there are no second chances. I’ll be in Chicago when I finally see what I have.
I grab my lights and attach the colored gels. I flip the black hoodie over my head and step in front of the camera to begin lighting. After 35 minutes, this one is in the can. I click the shutter off, and prepare for shot number two.
At around the 20 minute mark, I’m walking backwards and lighting the wall on the right, when my left leg gets tangled up in something. I don't get what’s happening because it’s too dark, so I shut off the light and shake my leg to release whatever’s there. Then I feel a sharp sting followed by a rush of warm liquid streaming down my leg. It’s a short, but effective coil of razor wire.
Within 5 seconds my shoe is full of blood.
I head back to the camera and put black velvet over the lens to pause the exposure. Then I sit down and pull my pant leg up, and I’m horrified by what I see. There’s a big gash so deep that part of my muscle is showing and the blood continues to leak out. Andrew and his friend Dorian volunteer to find a pharmacy and bring back supplies.
Once they leave I snap back and realize the shot isn’t finished. And this is only my second exposure! I grab my lights, remove the black velvet from the lens and get back to work. Ten minutes later shot number two is done.
The guys haven’t arrived yet and the wound and loss of blood is making me dizzy. I really don’t think I have another option. I was hoping to have bandaged the wound by now, but I know my leg will heal, and it’s now or never for the shot.
I slump back to the camera and click the shutter for exposure number three. I’m in a bit of a haze as I begin lighting and my blood-filled shoe keeps squishing with every step. I've never done a shot while being so injured and it’s not pleasant, but the adrenaline keeps the pain at bay.
A few minutes after I’ve completed the shot, the guys return with urgently needed medical supplies. Being photographers, Andrew and Dorian can’t resist taking photos of my wound. Looking at them later, they are gruesome and reminiscent of crime scene photos.
I clean up as well as I can, wrap the wound in a bandage, and start packing up my gear. It’s midnight and I head off to find an emergency room.