Shawn Biessel is a photographer based out of Omaha, NE, focusing on human-altered landscapes including land use and urban sprawl.
With winter feeling like it’s slowly becoming a thing of the past, I had to take advantage of a storm opportunity for some wandering around midtown and downtown Omaha. Four hours, eight miles, and 400 photos later in 0F/-30F windchill: here are a few shots. The tips of my fingers are still numb two days later.
It’s often worth re-tracing worn paths. Yesterday, I wandered into downtown Omaha, using a route I had taken many times. I was worried before I left that it would be a boring walk. That I wouldn’t see anything new. What I actually found was the opposite: subtle changes worth documenting and a dynamic sky that occasionally belched flurries of snow. Often, my walks result in few to no interesting images. Other times I find a few keepers. Either is okay. It’s the getting out and doing that matters.
It’s possible some of images below will make it into the Fronts + Sides series (working title), but I think I need to sit on them for awhile longer to see if they stay with me.
Photos from a walk just north of downtown Omaha on July 23, 2022.
Photos from west Omaha. June 26, 2022. Seems like the housing market must be hot when foundations are selling adjacent to huge power lines.
Earlier this week, I made a somewhat impromptu trip to the LA area to visit family. This provided the opportunity to explore the metro area with my Great Uncle Dan on a photography expedition. We paid a visit to some old haunts including the industrial area around Wilimington near Long Beach: certainly not the touristy parts of LA. I feel a lot of gratitude for being able to see these areas of the city with Dan, who’s lived in the area for more than 50 years. Long enough to see the metro completely swallow the basin.
The industrial areas we explored seemed bleaker than they felt in the past for some reason. Perhaps that is a reflection of the place the country is in today. Our failures to provide affordable housing and address climate change being a few of them. The writing on a dumpster beneath a refinery (?) seemed especially poignant: “the sky is falling.” Not sure there is much arguing with Chicken Little today.
This field next to the North Omaha power plant caught my eye. The juxtapositions with the stands and the power infrastructure is a fun juxtaposition, I think. And the seat colors are lovely. The second photo here was initially the one I thought was stronger, but now I’m leaning toward the first due to the colors and leading lines.
A vacant lot, tractor trailer, and some seemingly vacant buildings. A pale blue sky that isn’t sure it’s winter or spring. A lonely tilted light pole sits amidst the pastel hues. “Relationship equipped,” reads the trailer.
