INDEPENDENCE AVENUE & NORTHEAST KANSAS CITY PHOTOGRAPHY
Photos by: Jeremy Nelson
Independence Avenue Independence Avenue, once-elegant, is now an aged physical memory wearing a storied history. It’s new character has a disorganized, but positive cultural influx, giving the avenue’s rough sidewalks expression and life.
Cover Photo: Independence Plaza Park Entry Gateway
The cover photo is near Prospect and Independence Avenue, where a small park is split by the avenue. This park has many positive investments, including its stone and iron gateway, benches, and fountains, but the split between the park on the avenue is significant. There are no crosswalks within a visible distance, and even visual connections break down, as shown in the image, where the corresponding gateway is not aligned with the near gateway. The park is also completely fenced in, making it less accessible, and lowering the feeling of safety. The opposite photo shows the positive side of the new Independence Avenue. Taken just East of Benton and Independence, this photo captures the grassroots movement to create a socially connected culture in the Northeast. These signs are inviting to pedestrians, and the near sign advertises multiple language service. These small symbols greatly improve the quality of the avenue.
Facing Page: Local Coffee Shop and Restaurant Street Menus
My photos attempt to capture the new and old avenue using vignettes of singular characteristics or the juxtaposition of multiple characters. This helps to clarify the personality and significance of Independence Avenue and the surrounding Northeast.
Photos of Unique Signage in Spanish and English
Eclectic Signage Signs on Independence Avenue are varied in size, language, and color. As a major thoroughfare for traffic, many signs are directed towards fast-moving cars, but some are pedestrian, and some are decoration. Usually, permanence is not a priority for Independence Avenue signs, and many are painted directly on buildings or hang on cheap plastic banners. In order to gain visibility, some, like the La Flor de Chiapa’s restaurant, are suspended on a precarious outrigging from the building. One of the most interesting characteristics of the signage is where there is permanence that may not have been anticipated. Some signs have not been replaced for many years, either due to continuance of a business or due to a vacant storefront. Mayfair Cleaners’ sign on the avenue feels directly out of another generation, and contributes in a different way to the history of the avenue.
Examples of colorful signage on Independence Avenue
I chose to include color on this page to show the general color schemes of the avenue. A combination of bright colors, usually red with either green or blue (or a combination of both) over natural material colors, brick, concrete, steel, off-white stucco, and other taupe or building material colors.
Depth of FIeld: Two photographs exhibiting changes in focus using depth of field.
Depth of Field: Photo from same location with focus centered on background signage.
Near the Northeast public library is this mural of urban artwork
Graffiti + Tagging Signs on Independence Avenue aren’t all for businesses, some are billboards for outside places, some “signage” is just graffiti. The content can be intimidating, territorial, or just playful or random. This is often looked at negatively, and it certainly can be negative, but it is a common issue when the buildings aren’t taken care of, and other activities aren’t available. In urban areas, there is also a sense that nonused buildings are something of an urban “environment” fit for exploring, climbing and marking just like trees in nature. Independence Avenue’s vacancies and lack of a natural environment are a natural catalyst for the typical urban environment seen today. And in some cases this character can be beautiful, particularly when artistic, nonvandalizing, and non-threatening. The nearest example here includes artistic renderings of what could be seen in or on these windows if they were not boarded up. This gives the building a positive first impression, even if it is still a sign of the lack of investment on the avenue.
Playful street art on an abandoned building near Apple Mart and Independence and Monroe
The far left example shows graffiti near the public library that has been transformed by a positive message. The creative tagger painted books and the repeated word READ!
Blue River Valley and the Industrial East Edge of Independence Avenue
Remaining checkpoint facility at abandoned GST / ARMCO Steel Company Manufacturing Plant
Parts + Recreation Independence Avenue between Hardesty and I-435 used to be a major manufacturing junction. Tied conveniently to the rail lines running North and South in the Blue River valley, as well as those running East and West through Union Station and low-lying areas, this region become a hot spot for industrial use, providing many jobs for the surrounding residents. The result today is an assortment of small facilities still in operation and brownfield sites remaining in place of formerly large job creating plants that created the pieces and parts for construction, packaging, and anything else that could be shipped by rail or truck. There have been small efforts to revitalize these leftover spaces, and the near picture shows a highly successful soccer field that has been built next to the rail line in Lykens neighborhood. Other areas have not been as luck. The other pictures show the negative affects of different infrastructural barriers and abandoned facilities that only exist as reminders of what once was. Popular new turf soccer field in Lykins neighborhood with jetstream overhead
The area is still highly trafficked, and provided numerous opportunities to photograph passing trains.
Downtown Kansas City River Market and the Crossroads
Downtown KC + The Northeast My photos were not limited to Independence Avenue and the Northeast. One of the key features of the region is its proximity to the downtown, and I also spent time capturing iconic buildings and sites in the city. From Crossroads through to River Market, downtown Kansas City is experiencing a slow revitalization, and this revitalization is having an effect on Independence Avenue. Transit options, night life, events, and jobs bring people to the downtown area to live and experience everything it has to offer. Since the Northeast is the closest neighborhood to the downtown, it should naturally be a top option for people not wanting to live directly in the city, but wanting a short commute or connection to the city. The more urban style of the community and the history of the area is appealing to some as well. While the Northeast may never return to its days of housing the elite of Kansas City in large mansions, it may have a better future. One that incorporates a wide variety of housing types, promotes economic and racial diversity, and benefits and serves the city of Kansas City, bringing out the heart of the city in the downtown. These photos were all taken for a study in using the camera to describe depth, or depth of field. Some are taken in series to show different focal depths, and some are taken to show how different urban objects frame and relate to one another.