North Portland (NoPo) lies between the Columbia and Willamette River where they join to flow toward the Pacific. Its shores are lined with harbors, including the Port of Portland freight terminals. The gentrification of downtown Portland hasn't reached NoPo, and its character is little changed, I imagine, since the 1950s.
In editing these photos I was thinking about Gerry Johansson's book Deutschland, which I fell in love with as soon as I picked it up. Jörg Colberg has a nice interview with Gerry Johansson on the Conscientious Photography Magazine site, and a lot of what Gerry has to say resonates with me: finding beauty as you personally see it; photography as a way "to react to your feelings instantly"; and letting images fall into themes naturally without forcing a specific project to happen.
Gerry's visual style (small, square, b&w photos with spare content and strong composition) made me want to try some more square images. They seemed to fall into pairs again, so I've presented them that way. Most of the photos are molded by a particular light that we get in Portland on some overcast days -- a smooth, neutral, shadowless light.
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