Not the primary face of Indy's Old Northside

A project that has kept me busy -- and busy enough to derail regular posts here or at my Facebook page in recent weeks -- has been the task to photograph the Old Northside neighborhood of Indianapolis. The project actually is being undertaken by several interested members of the Indy Meetup Photo Club (IMUPC), the same club that covered the inaugural Park2Park Relay Race in Hendricks County on June 25.

The Old Northside project has been going on since May, and it's been in full steam since June. Club members have been out photographing various scenes in the neighborhood -- either as a group or individually -- since then. I've done both group and individual shoots in the neighborhood, and as you might have guessed from my existing neighborhoods galleries folder at my online site at Smugmug.com, this is something I really enjoy doing, and the Old Northside project is no exception.

I'll be posting some shots from my efforts in the project later this month; the Propylaeum, the club's partner in the project, will display our work at an open house fundraiser on Aug. 21. Admission is $10; there will be food and refreshments (including a cash bar) as well as an opportunity to tour the historic Propylaeum structure.

This neighborhood definitely is worth a photographic profile; there are remarkable, beautiful structures there to behold. However, while on an individual shoot in the neighborhood last weekend, I came across an off-the-beaten path alley scene that was unlike anything I've seen anywhere else in the neighborhood. In a way, an antithesis to all the striking features I'd found, but nevertheless intriguing ... and even interesting. It was some brick wall art and graffiti in the shell of a structure roofless except for a section with overhead crisscrossing, intersecting thin steel beams -- a sort of work of art themselves. It reminded me -- but on a much larger scale -- of a surprise I came across earlier this month when I took a shortcut en route to my car after a photo gallery opening in the Fountain Square neighborhood of Indianapolis and came across an alleyway of murals and artwork that I'm sure wasn't commissioned.

I took quite a few photographs of this Old Northside discovery, none of which I intend to submit for the Old Northside project, so I feel I can post them here now.

Above and below: I might not have even thought to explore the alley had I not been intrigued by the bright green doors on the facade and the lack of roof I could detect from the open area above the green door on the left. The doorway (below) gives a hint of what's to come once one makes the precarious step inside.