Viz City: The Solitary Street
Right now, in the heart of the city—at the Midtown Center for the Arts on 16th—there is a quiet conversation happening between two photographers that you need to overhear. It’s called "Street Scenes: Two Perspectives," featuring Richard Hassett and Doremus Scudder.
Imagine standing on a street corner in Eugene at dawn. The air is cold, and the light is so sharp it feels like it could cut glass. This is the world of Richard Hassett. He finds the "lonely outsider"—a person in a wheelchair silhouetted against a wall of shocking, industrial yellow, or a solitary figure crossing Oak Street shadowed by a brick monolith.
It’s a style reminiscent of the great American realist painters—rich, dramatic, and deeply still. He captures the moments where the city feels like a stage set, and we are the only ones left in the theater.
But then, the perspective shifts.
Suddenly, you are in Vienna, Austria, through the lens of Doremus Scudder. Doremus doesn’t use a digital sensor; he uses a heavy 4x5 camera and traditional film to capture what he calls a "temporal patina"—the way time physically wears down the world. While Richard looks at the person, Doremus looks at the stone.
He shows us crumbling vines reclaiming a window and ancient stone giants standing guard over modern storefronts plastered with layers of tattered street posters and peeling advertisements.
Even when the streets are empty, the images feel crowded with the ghosts of everyone who has walked them over the last thousand years.
What makes this show compelling is the mood they share: a beautiful, haunting solitude. Whether it’s a rainy afternoon in Eugene or a century-old alley in Vienna, both artists are asking us to look at the "mundane" until it becomes extraordinary.
Step out of the noise of 16th Street and into these quiet worlds. "Street Scenes" is waiting for you.
