Alleys & Ruins no. 135, Hard Rock (2010, Cleveland, OH, 10pm)

The Temple of Lost Love
 
Beneath Cleveland’s Eagle Avenue Bridge, where "Hard Rock" was shot, a forgotten stretch of concrete became an unexpected sanctuary for art and chaos. In 1991, a group of about 40 artists turned the space into a surreal, collaborative gallery they called the Temple of Lost Love. They stenciled skeletons, hung mobiles made from electric guitars, and mosaicked the pillars with glass, holy cards, and candy trinkets. They lit fires, scrawled cryptic messages, and created freely, fueled by midnight inspiration and the thrill of making something beautiful in a place no one cared about. Over the years, the site became a kind of urban shrine — open to all, weird by design, and filled with emotion, humor, and rebellion. Its existence sparked rumors of devil worship and delinquency, but for those who made it, it was sacred. 
 
In late 2002, the city mistook the Temple for a vandalized mess and painted over it. Officials saw recent graffiti — including a “Fuck the Police” tag in red, white, and blue — and assumed the space had been trashed by teens. Without warning, city workers erased eleven years of layered, living artwork under a flat coat of gray. They later admitted it was a mistake and offered an apology, but for those who had poured themselves into the site, it hit hard. The cleanup came just weeks after a reunion brought 50 artists back to the bridge to reconnect and add new pieces. One artist even planted a hopeful garden beneath the soot-stained overpass — only to see it cut down during the scrubbing. The city's timing was especially painful, coming right after a promise to support the arts. 
 
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Cleveland's Flats along the winding Cuyahoga River near downtown is a fascinating study in how industrial decay can be transformed into vibrant mixed use neighborhoods, with restaurants, bars and residential units having been created by renovating the old beautiful buildings, instead of mowing them down. The area and the river weren't always so nice. The river is probably most famous for being so polluted, it caught fire in 1969.
But Alley 135 was shot far away from the pretty bits. There are still miles of isolated, run-down, industrial parts of the Flats. I was under the abandoned Eagle Avenue bridge, which spans the Cuyahoga River. The road it once serviced was long gone, and so the span was locked permanently up maybe 50 feet in the air. I got help from my friend John and his wife Maryann who brought along their freakin huge Rottweiler, making this a nice, relaxed shoot where I could take my time and think.
This was my fourth time, over many years, shooting gritty corners in Cleveland, but the first time I finally got a shot I was happy with.
The blurry Polaroid in the slideshow above is the test I did to figure out my lighting. Since I shoot film, not digital, I have to rely on a polaroid to see where my shot is going. It was very dark under the bridge, and while exposing for the city in the back, the bridge would have been a dark blob without my lighting, which you can tell from the lower part of the Polaroid that didn't get any of my light. In fact, all the light under the bridge is mine, creating the mood I wanted. The one Polaroid I did gave me enough information to know what I needed to do, and with that I shot four 8-minute exposures, varying the light a little each time and the image above was the winner.
From 30 feet away, John shot a spotlight through some trees creating a nice warm light-and-shadow effect over most of the wall. At the same time I walked around with a couple of hand held flashes, adding green light to the steel girders plus a dash of blue to the ceiling. These colors also bled into John's light, further adding interesting lighting effects on the wall.
You can see how different films react differently to light. The Polaroid saw green light on the office towers while the film saw a warmer hue (which is more accurate since sodium vapor light looks orange to the eye). Also Polaroid is more contrasty, resulting in a black sky, whereas the film saw the blue, likely created by moonlight.
The blue-capped skyscraper on the right is Key Tower. Built in 1991, it is the tallest building in the city. The closer, lavender-capped building is the Terminal Tower, opened in 1928. At the time, it was the 2nd tallest building in the world, after the Woolworth Building in New York.