(real) urban ku # 55 ~ beauty and truth
Thursday, April 19, 2007 at 01:26PM 
The 'real' Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggenThe view of downtown Pittsburgh from Mt. Washington at night was named by USA Weekend Magazine as #2 on its list of the 10 Most Beautiful Places in the U.S.
Indeed, the view is quite beautiful. The place itself is an entirely different story. USA Mag declares Pittsburgh to be '...one of America's most scenic ... communities', but I've gotta tell ya that I don't know what they're thinking. From the photography-wise point of view, the city has a number of places from which, at the right time of day/light, a nice picture can be had. That said, if the photographer where to look around at his/her immediate place, the view would not be so rosy.
If you remember from urban ku # 53, Pittsburgh is considered a very large 'canvas' in the U.S. graffiti community because of its abundance of empty and dilapidated residential and commercial buildings. In addition to this reality, it's mandatory to note that the city is also dotted with ravines and gullies - much like the one pictured here - which, upon not-so-close inspection, are revealed to be 'public' dumps for all all kinds of refuse.
I could go on about the decaying infrasture - bridges, streets, city steps (in a city of hillsides, a story unto themselves), etc. but I won't. My purpose is not to bash the city of Pittsburgh. I lived there for 15 years and will be the first to admit that it has much to offer but, amongst other things, scenic beauty is not one of them.
And, to the point, photographs which suggest otherwise simply aren't dealing in truth.
BTW, the hilltop neighborhood, Mt. Troy, depicted in the attached picture is where we lived. There was a nice view at the end of our street.
Reader Comments (2)
Well I used to spend quite a bit of time in Zelionople, about 20 miles north of Pittsburg. I agree the general area around Pittsburg is not nature friendly, but getting a bit north improves the outlook greatly.
I still think the airport is the best in the US.
I disagree about pburgh not being a photo opportunity rich environment. There were doors and wheelbarrows and other stuff. There are alot of grey days, so the magical natural light stuff doesn't happen as often, but there are many pockets of nature, etc.
Maybe you were just not at a place where you could work at it every day, because you were tied to film and paper, adn it was the post modernist age, rather than the integrated digital, or pre cyborg age that we have entered.