Alleys & 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.
8.5 × 11 · 300 pages · 240 photographs
Visceral memoir, plus stories from 25 years, 1,200 nights, across 30+ cities.
I had guns pointed at me. I was chased by gangs through ruins and dark alleys. And every time, I went back without a second thought, for 25 years, because something in the dark was healing me.
In 1987, my life came apart. Long before I understood why, I started exploring forgotten places at night with a camera. I didn't know what I was doing or why I couldn't stop. I just knew that with every dark corner I brought to light, something inside me shifted. This book tells that story.
Digital Edition - $10 and up - delivered in two formats
PDF - The full designed book with all the photographs
ePub - The memoir and stories, for e-readers and phones
$10 Complete Digital Book: Memoir, all 230 photographs, and photo stories. PDF + ePub
$125 Patron Edition (Pre-order): The printed limited edition, signed hardcover (ships September), plus the complete digital book today (PDF + ePub), plus your name on a dedicated Patron page in the hardcover.
*The limited edition printed hardcover will be available for $125 in September 2026.
“A psychologically precise and unusually compelling account of trauma and recovery – and a rare example of creative practice functioning as self-repair.”
-Dr. Lyssa Menard, Clinical Psychologist, Northwestern University
“An important work… a unique and powerful piece.” -Dr. Anka Vujanovic. Editor-in-Chief, StressPoints, International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies
“Masterpiece” -The New York Times
“You will never see a dark alley the same way again” -PBS
“Vividly surreal representations of some of our most unloved places” -Architect Magazine
“A redemption story that's more honest and vulnerable than any I've read before.” -Bryan Nyary, PhD
Cover photo during the day
The book tells two parallel stories, woven together:
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.
Sample pages from Alleys & Ruins
“Your stories and photos brought me back to my midnight shifts on patrol. You were fast thinking and very smart out there – that's why you stayed alive.”
-Lisa Hale, retired police officer, 18-year veteran, Detroit
Sample story from Alleys and Ruins
Alleys & Ruins no. 142, Luv
2012, Chicago, IL, 10:00 pm
The five rapid gunshots are loud and close. I instinctively drop low, eyes toward the sound, my hand rises up to my face. I look around, a couple people have dropped to one knee. We all hold still, listening.
Nothing.
“Holy crap.” And we all get back up.
I return to my camera and lighting equipment and resume planning my photograph.
A few minutes later, flashing lights approach. It’s a cop car. The officers step out cautiously. One rests his hand on the top of his holstered sidearm. The other barks, “What’s going on here?”
I start explaining that we’re setting up for a photo.
The cops look at us, then at each other, like none of this makes sense. And why would it? Who sets up in a dark, abandoned back lot in Chicago’s notoriously dangerous Lawndale neighborhood, with bags and bags of expensive equipment, in the middle of the night... to take a photo?
They glance through our gear, flip open a few bags, and realize we’re telling the truth.
“Look,” one of them says, “you guys take your photo. But be careful out here. We had a report of shots fired. Do you know anything about that?”
We tell them about the five shots that rang out 10 minutes earlier and point in the general direction. They nod, then get back in the car and speed away, looking for the shooter.
And I get back to work.
It’s dark, but I can still make out the crumbling, ugly eyesore that remains of the building. And if all goes well, I’m going to make it pretty by lighting it up with bright, colored lights.
I focus on my camera again. I make adjustments to the settings. Then I choose the lights I’ll be using from my big selection of spotlights and flash units. Next is the color scheme. I pull out the gels I need and start attaching them to the lights.
There’s a shriek behind me. One of my assistants has just seen a big rat.
I return to the camera. I’m about to begin the first of several 25-minute exposures (we’re going to be here a while). During each long exposure, I’ll be walking through the scene with a light in my hand, slowly building up layers of light and color. I click the shutter. The first exposure begins.
Now I’m going to step in front of the camera to do my lighting. It’s the only way to create the detailed, precise lighting I need. But of course I don’t want myself to appear in the photo. Over the years I’ve built up a big bag of tricks. It’s almost pitch black and I’m wearing a black hoodie so it’s hard for the camera to see me, and as long as I keep moving while in front of the camera, I won’t appear on the negative, only my lighting.
I flip the hoodie over my head and step into the scene to begin lighting the picture that would become Alleys & Ruins no. 142, Luv
Digital Edition - $10 and up - delivered in two formats
PDF - The full designed book with all the photographs
ePub - The memoir and stories, for e-readers and phones
$10 Complete Digital Book: Memoir, all 230 photographs, and photo stories. PDF + ePub
$125 Patron Edition (Pre-order): The printed limited edition, signed hardcover (ships September), plus the complete digital book today (PDF + ePub), plus your name on a dedicated Patron page in the hardcover.
*The limited edition printed hardcover will be available for $125 in September 2026.