I’ve always loved this photograph—especially now that the building has been razed without any trace left behind. The wall is a flood wall; this is near the Ohio River in the Portland neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky. I worked at this photograph several times, working especially to get the two differing planes in focus, a trick I can handle with the 4x5 view camera and its movements. There are many things that stand out to me here: the shadows, the lettering and numbering, the scraggly grass and the distant trees growing from the ruins. I’m drawn to ruins; there’s something very American about architecture, which is history, so readily left behind. To live among ruins surely has an effect on our psyche. How can we not see ourselves in those falling façades? This sole photograph was in the online exhibition Abandoned: Time and Place for Chateau Gallery during the Louisville Photo Biennial in 2021.