My 2006 Knoxville photo gallery can be viewed here:

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=11000.0

 

Sorry, these photos are from a few months ago but I've been way behind with a lot of things so I finally got to them today. The 2006 post is a lot more flattering with many more shots of the city. 

 

I went down there in August to photograph a truly ridiculous annual event, the Knoxville Ska Weekend festival.  This event is pretty much the only ska-only event in the country, symptomatic of the moribund state of that music genre.  It's hilarious too because there's all sorts of in-fighting between the various bands and their respective fans.  But to paraphrase something I overheard there that day, "Ska keeps hanging on, but the audience stays the same age".  Cough.   

 

 

Expressway work:

 

 

Condo conversion:

 

Renovations:

 

Old commercial buildings:

 

New downtown movie theater:

 

Back of the new movie theater:

 

Gay St.:

 

The King:

 

King Django, with a great row of commercial buildings in the background.  I saw this shot right away but had to wait all day for the light to fall right (and I used pocket wizard remotes on all these stage shots):

 

Drummer:

 

The Pietasters:

 

The Pietasters' abbreviated horn line (trumpeter was a no-show):

 

Bass player from The Slackers on the main stage:

 

A good band from New Jersey called Steadfast United:

 

The backup singer was good:

 

Lame band playing inside:

 

View from the second stage:

 

 

Now onto the real show, all the people who drove through the night for this:

 

 

 

 

 

Harry Potter in the house:

 

 

Leftover Crack:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camera geeked out:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After looking at those people I don't believe there was any crack left over.

You have some of the whackiest shots.

 

The expressway project was a rebuilding: Interstate 40/James White Pkwy/Hall of Fame Drive. Interstate 40 will soon be closed to traffic and will be reconstructed, a project that has long been needed. Interstate 275 is also being widened to three-lanes and all of its interchanges are being reconstructed -- another long needed project -- in order to handle Interstate 40's diverted traffic.

Looks like...fun?  Maybe?  Great shots, though!

 

There is already an I-40 bypass so I suspect the I-275 project is just pork.  I believe it was a pre-interstate expressway that was then designated I-75 and then I-275 when I-640 opened around 1980.  I've never seen any kind of traffic on I-275, after all downtown Knoxville is hardly a major destination of any kind.  All the action in Knoxville is to the west, and I'm not sure if work's started but a much larger bypass has been in the works for many years that should actually improve the situation.  The whole state of Tennessee is loaded with pork roadway projects from the Old Natchez Trace Parkway and Rt. 840 in Nashville to I-140 in Knoxville and the James White Parkway, a totally unnecessary downtown bypass which I believe is waiting on this I-40 work before it connects with Chapman Highway about 5 miles south of downtown.  As-is it's about 10 years old and gets no traffic, people ride their bikes on it. 

 

Also it's closed now for the work but the former ramp from northbound James White to I-40 west was the most dangerous interstate merge I've ever seen, outdoing anything in Pittsburgh or Boston.  It was a left-side merge where I-40 itself was curving to the right but the ramp was curving to the left meaning you had to be turning right while you waited for a gap in traffic.  Like the old elevated I-93 in Boston, most of the time it was backed up so you just came to a stop at the end of the ramp and nuzzled in but it was much less safe when there was less and therefore faster traffic.   

Nice photos.

 

I really liked Knoxville the first time that I was there. I'm continually less and less impressed with each return visit.

After looking at those people I don't believe there was any crack left over.

 

My thoughts exactly. Nice work on the people pics though.

Nice!

those are superb portraits. wow.

 

i gotta dig out my specials & prince buster, pop them on and look at this thread again.

 

knoxville seems intent on holding on to their main street usa vibe too, good for them.

Wow, those people shots were quite interesting.  Looks like a bit of the Ska crowd are emaciated. 

I have to echo the thoughts about the great people shots...I also am loving the work they're doing on that new movie theatre.  It sure as hell is a LOT better than most new infill (sans the back/side of the building).

I had no idea that movie theater was being built, I rounded the corner and there it was.  Look close and you'll see they're reusing several of the old facades.  Looks like at least 6 theaters too so it's fairly big.  For so long UT and its 35,000 students have been just a mile away so it's great that downtown is finally turning around.  Architecturally downtown Knoxville is one of the best small downtowns in the country but when I lived there ten years ago there was almost nothing down there, probably 95% vacancy.  About 28 of 30 storefronts on Market Square were vacant, now it's almost totally full.  It has some great streetscapes and two nice old bridges over the river. 

 

I'm having a photo show in July 2008 in Columbus and hopefully some more coming next year if I get off my duff. 

 

I don't even remember the theater when I was down exploring the downtown in late 2006.