Portland Playhouse A Christmas Carol Portland Oregon

Photo: A Portland Journal, Part 3

The once and future city? K.B. Dixon's series of urban portraits reminds us of what Portland felt like in the not-too-distant past.

April 2, 2023

K.B. Dixon

Culture, Photography

BUSINESS SCHOOL, 2018

TEXT and PHOTOGRAPHS by K.B. DIXON

As in the previous installments of this short series, I have collected images from an ongoing project—from what is basically a photographic journal, images that offer a look at Portland before what we might call “The Troubles” (the pandemic, the protests, the homeless crisis) turned it from a city full of promise into one full of problems. My hope is that in looking back we can look forward, that these photographs from Portland’s recent past might serve as prompts to the contemplation of its possible future.

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Salmon Street, 2017

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Hard Hat, 2018

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Rose Tattoo, 2016

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Beard Competition, 2013

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Lion, 2012

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Division Hardware, 2019

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Bottled Water, 2012

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Benson House, 2016

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Father & Child, 2013

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Previously in this series

Part 1: A Portland Journal: The city in photos.
Part 2: Photo: A Portland Journal, Part 2.

K.B. Dixon

K.B. Dixon’s work has appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers, and journals. His most recent collection of stories, Artifacts: Irregular Stories (Small, Medium, and Large), was published in Summer 2022. The recipient of an OAC Individual Artist Fellowship Award, he is the winner of both the Next Generation Indie Book Award and the Eric Hoffer Book Award. He is the author of seven novels: The Sum of His Syndromes, Andrew (A to Z), A Painter’s Life, The Ingram Interview, The Photo Album, Novel Ideas, and Notes as well as the essay collection Too True, Essays on Photography, and the short story collection, My Desk and I. Examples of his photographic work may be found in private collections, juried exhibitions, online galleries, and at K.B. Dixon Images.