Jaron:
We recently did a portrait shoot of Leslie in Richmond, VA. Even though we're based in Charlottesville, we do a lot of work in both the Richmond and the DC / Northern VA areas.
Richmond for us is a photographic gold mine. Richmond is a very cool city, with a long and interesting history. Patrick Henry gave his "Give me Liberty or Give Me Death" speach there. It was the capital of the Confederacy. In the 1920s, several movie houses opened - one of which is still around, Byrd Theater. It's one of the last of the great movie palaces of the 1920s and 1930s left in the country. Richmond went through a boom in the 1960s, when hundreds of buildings went up. A couple decades after, the downtown deteriorated quite a bit. It had a depressed and run down feel for quite a long while, but in the last 10-15 years it has gone through a major revival.
There's a lot of great stuff in Richmond. Cool restaurants, boutique shops - and VCU has a major art program that brings a lot to the creative culture of the city. There are still a lot of old industrial buildings around. Old red brick buildings with worn paint - stuff from an era you only find in the east. Visually, it's fantastic!
So on to the photo shoot. We decided to just drive around a bit and look for some cool spots. As we pulled into town on Boulevard St, we saw a tattoo joint with some great graffiti on the side -River City Tattoo Co. We pulled over to start snapping. After we finished there, we saw a good alley across the street, and then crossed the street to a BBQ joint (Bill's BBQ - They're all over Richmond, and if you haven't eaten in one - don't miss out. Try the pork BBQ, the fresh lemon-aid and the chocolate pie!). I don't think we got out of a two block radius, and had so much stuff we were done. And that's the way the whole city is. Here's a few of our favorites:










We had a great time with Leslie! She's fun, beautiful, and photogenic. And on top of that, she's such a cool and happy person. We're so glad to know her. Thanks, Les!
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