A city is seen differently by everyone who lives in and around it. Some love everything about where they live, while others may want to be anywhere else. For Cuyahoga Falls, there are many reasons why the former is true, as seen through the eyes of local and visiting photographers in the “Summer Fun Flows Here” community art installation, currently hanging at Cuyahoga Falls City Hall.
Local artists submitted photographs of downtown Cuyahoga Falls, all portraying how they see the city, as new additions and new life come to businesses and festivals around town. “It is exciting to see the photos that were captured of our downtown with everyone out and about enjoying our local businesses and celebrating our new family and pet friendly public spaces and events,” Mayor Don Walters said in a press release about the art installation. “We were thrilled as we watched our riverfront and downtown come back to life through the Falls Downtown Fridays event series, festivals, and the reopening of Front Street.”
Hanging in City Hall’s main hallway and main conference room, and in the Mayor’s office, each photo looks different, as much a part of the photographer as its subjects. While some photos appear to be altered—some with filters, others with watermarks, taking away from the clean image of real life—other images are taken right from the road, a cell phone image snapped and sent. No matter how the photos appear, though, the content is special. Andrew Fry, whose summer photo witnesses the South end of Front Street at dusk, explains, “I chose these pictures ‘cause they are all unique in their own ways, and I wanted to show Downtown Cuyahoga Falls at different times of the day and in different lighting.”
Other artists chose to look at the growing festivals this past summer. Akron artist Victoria Rose submitted several images of festival traffic enjoying different events. “My pictures show the Falls growing and moving forward,” she said.
Jessica Loftus, the show’s curator, says that the collection is a way for Cuyahoga Falls residents to celebrate their city. “It was a beautiful thing to see the city through the eyes of their residents, and it was through that loving vision the pieces were submitted,” Loftus explains.
