First of all, MNOP stands for Madison, Norfolk, Owasso & Peoria. These are the Tulsa, Oklahoma streets of my childhood. That's where I learned to become a city boy. All my urban chops were honed in and around that North Tulsa area West of Lowell Elementary School, which is long gone.
At the south end of those streets, which is cut-off by a factory and the railroad tracks at East Archer, we were led downtown past the Fintube complex and around to Greenwood, which was the only direction we could really go. As we got older, we played a lot in downtown Tulsa.
Joe Andoe got to practice his brand of our neighborhood in East Tulsa. But we got stuck there in that hole of neighborhood. I only mention Joe Andoe, because if I could describe my perception of Tulsa, it wouldn't be much different from some of his stories in
Jubilee City.
We were usually at the edges where the homeless people and the prostitutes were. We did all the stuff hoodlums were supposed to do - busted windows, got into fights, stole bikes. (But we weren't all that bad, either - if you ask me.) We rarely got in any
big trouble.
So I don't know how a lot of those memories of Tulsa could be described as "fond" - they don't really approach the romantic "chamber of commerce" memories that are so often force fed to Tulsans. But the memories
are fond, maybe because I own them.
My photography work is the main purpose of this blog. The other stuff is just a little bit about me. I suppose I'll make an attempt to incorporate some of those memories into this blog, when it supports the photography.
When I was really young, a photographer came around door to door with a horse and to make pictures of kids on his horse with chaps and a cowboy hat on. For some strange reason, we took the photo in the alley behind our house on North Norfolk. I remember the trash laying around and the tipped over trash cans and the stink, and the flies. I have never understood why we took the photo back there.
Not a few years after that, I found myself dreaming about photographing some of the things that people don't get to see. I secretly dreamed of being a photojounalist when I was young. I was always into photography, I just never had a camera.
Now I have cameras.
.
