52nd City

"Ghost Town: While St. Louis Sleeps"

Originally envisioned as a collaborative book, featuring several St. Louis photographers of diverse styles, "Ghost Town: While St. Louis Sleeps" is a marvelous addition to any St. Louis bookshelf. Containing the work of photographer Eric Post, the title doesn't lose any punch by having one contributor. In fact, this page-turner shows off a truly accomplished artist, able to capture the remarkable subtleties of our city in the evening hours.

Very few people are ever seen in the book, but it's alive with the small touches of architecture - and demise of the same - that make this area so unique, with a heavy emphasis on the City of St. Louis. Post's targets include some immediately recognizable imagery; cynically, one might look at the cover photo of an illuminated Arch as a must for sales, but it's also a beautiful shot, the icon almost lost in the busy, criss-crossing train trestles that dominate the image. This isn't the "classic," staid image of the Arch we've become used to.

Also found are quickly-IDed spots like the Planetarium, the Lemp Brewery, the still-in-renovation Continental Building and Steinberg skating rink. Others are a bit more subtle, capturing places that you know by sight, but you've never seen in this, partciular, lowlit perspective: the Forest Park Fieldhouse, Southwest High School's main entryway, the Social Security office on Chippewa. The latter, a mundane view during the day, somehow comes to life before Post's camera.

Post shows some steely nerve, too. Anyone who's been past the Ebony Motel at night knows that you don't snap a picture there without looking behind you. (And to both sides. And then behind you, again.) Several of the grittier images clearly suggest: 1) a photographer who's out with an associate, they keeping a keen eye on his back, or 2) photographer who's able to steady himself in the most quiet, dark, dangerous spots that we've all hustled past during the nocturnal hours. I tend to think he's in this second group, which makes the collection of these shots even more impressive.

"Ghost Town" is a really beautiful book, one that you'll want to savor with repeated glances.

Eric Post will be heard on the KDHX talk show "The Wire, on Monday, December 12 at 7:30 p.m. The book party for "Ghost Town" will be held at the Atomic Cowboy, 4140 Manchester, on Friday, December 16, from 7-10 p.m.