Native photographer’s new ebook explores Athens as firm city – Athens County Independent

ATHENS COUNTY, Ohio — While the connection between Ohio University and the encompassing communities is typically strained, “Athens would not be Athens” with out OU, native photographer Rich-Joseph Facun informed the Independent.

Facun is a former photojournalist whose work has been printed by the New York Times, Atlantic, NPR, Wall Street Journal, and extra. He has beforehand printed two picture books, “Black Diamonds” and “Little Cities.” 

Facun’s third ebook, “1804,” is a brand new launch that relationship, starting on the college’s founding and thru to the current. 

It is the primary ebook printed by Liars Corner, a brand new publishing firm Facun launched. It focuses “on uplifting and giving an outlet for underrepresented and marginalized communities and artists,” mentioned Facun, who’s of Otomi and Pinoy descent. 

Set for  November launch, “1804” options 62 pictures and an essay. Facun started the challenge in the course of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020. 

“That was a really difficult time for myself, and also for other people in the community,” he mentioned. “Just walking around and streets were empty and businesses were closing. I just needed to get out and start taking some photographs.”

The context of the pandemic led Facun in a brand new creative path.

“Normally, the majority of what I shoot is people,” Facun mentioned. But, when Facun started taking the images that will change into “1804,” “there weren’t very many people out.”

“I just started photographing the social landscape of Athens,” he mentioned. “And while doing that, it really started to hit home that Athens was a modern iteration of a company town.”

Many company towns in Athens County and the Appalachian area sprung up round extractive industries within the mid-Nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Company cities, like the former Eclipse Company Town within the present-day neighborhood of The Plains, featured housing for employees and a retailer all owned by the coal firm. 

“1804” explores the same firm city dynamic between Ohio University and Athens, by way of Facun’s digital camera lens throughout time. With every image, Facun tells the story of how OU, because the dominant employer within the city, additionally turned a driving cultural power.

Athens was established in 1803, however the chartering of OU the next yr was instrumental in shaping the city. 

“Certainly, Athens would not be Athens had the University not been established there,” Facun mentioned. “I’m positive that it would mirror more of the economic status of many smaller towns in this region, like Shawnee and Nelsonville.”

Meanwhile, the colourful neighborhood of Athens presents a giant draw for potential faculty college students.

“I’ve lived in so many places, and I’ve never lived anywhere that had the community that’s available in Athens,” Facun mentioned. “There’s just a certain, unique kind of community that’s very supportive, and it … feels smaller than [it is].”

However, Facun famous that the symbiotic relationship between Athens and OU may pose issues for each sooner or later.

“Are we witnessing a shift from boom to bust?” he asks in a press launch for the ebook. The ebook explores this query, delving into issues now dealing with the college that would have an effect on its future. 

“You’ve got Senate Bill 1 [Ohio’s higher education overhaul], you’ve got executive orders, you’ve got a decline in the amount of students pursuing higher education,” Facun mentioned.  “That’s a whole new can of worms.” 

“I think only time will allow us to determine how that will directly affect the community of Athens, and how it all directly affects the university, and then, in turn, affect[s] the relationship between those two entities,” Facun mentioned.

Facun sees the photographs in his ebook as telling the story of that relationship simply as successfully as writing.

“Each image is intended to be structured in the sense of like a traditional written story. So there is a narrative there,” Facun mentioned. 

“When you create a written story, there’s a lead graf, and you build on that, and there’s transitional sentences to lead you to each new paragraph, and it builds to climax, and so forth. So in that way, it’s constructed in the same way you traditionally build a written story.”