NFTs - non-fungible tokens - are blockchain-verified transactions that publicly register when someone has purchased a digital good. Where on Earth would he get the money to defend himself from the charges? This was at the height of Covid-19 and at the birth of the NFT craze. Sleeping on his dad’s floor in a tiny Cincinnati apartment, wearing an ankle monitor, unable to step outside, Wright stewed. Although, in April 2021, this meant he could afford to go home again, he faced five separate criminal cases and spiraling lawyers’ fees for each. Wright’s bail was set at an astronomical $400,000, but thanks to deft phone work and a receptive ear on the outside, he was able to get that reduced to $20,000. Wright says this photo was inspired by ‘Harry Potter. I remember thinking, This is a place where I feel understood.” He was hooked. As a human in that experience, you feel so small, which I think is very important for us, to be reminded of our place in the world. “It wasn’t about the rush or the adrenaline,” he says. Sitting there above the noise and lights, the stress and trauma of his life disappeared. “I went up, and there was just this realm of peace,” he explains, sounding humbled. Listening to Wright describe that experience, it’s clear he was motivated as much by self-care as by art or aesthetics. Moonlight above and the quiet roar of roads below. He slipped inside and began climbing, 10, 20, 50 stories, all the way to the top. Within a few hours, he chose his target: a new tower under construction. He had a new camera and a sense of obsession with seeing those sorts of forbidden sights for himself. On a recreational break in May 2018, Wright drove to Houston. Think of all the buildings there, he imagined, lying alone in his cot at night, surrounded by forest. ![]() ![]() Wright knew that Houston and New Orleans were just a short drive away. In the months leading up to his first act of urban exploration, Wright’s girlfriend began sending him links to Instagram accounts featuring photos taken from the roofs of high-rises in cities like New York, London, and Shanghai, a dream world of subway tunnels, abandoned mansions, and neon lights. He longed to get back to the concrete and steel of the city. He was an urban kid, raised in Over the Rhine - a historically Black neighborhood in Cincinnati - and Fort Polk felt like exile. When the Army relocated him to Fort Polk, Louisiana, he felt frustrated. ![]() Army’s 10th Mountain Division, where he served as a paratrooper. Wright is a Cincinnati native and a veteran of the U.S. His photos led to an interstate police manhunt, a lengthy jail term, and his personal possessions being confiscated - and, later, millions of dollars’ worth of digital photography sales. Urban exploration did exactly that for Wright, upending his life entirely - before saving it.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |