Burned: Arson field trip to the Central Toledo area

A white picket fence surrounds what once was the American dream burned to the ground. (Photos by Sam Ricker PHO245)

Steps lead to nowhere after an arson claims a home in Central Toledo.

   The final projects are in full swing in Owens Community College's photojournalism class.
  Our class took a field trip to the Central Toledo area to photograph arson sites on November 28th. The job for us students was not only to photograph these houses but to find witnesses or neighbors to interview,  then a soundslides production.

   The class was broken up into three sections. A sound team to collect interviews and work in a sound program called audacity, an editing team to collect and edit photographs and put them in sound slides, and a caption team to write down information to make the captions and put them along with photographs.

An abandoned home can be the perfect opening for an arsonist to enter and destroy.

  The class started out at a house that was burned to the ground, only rubble remained. A neighbor who lived across the street was kind enough to talk with our sound team students and gave us valuable information that we could only of obtained from witnesses like her. The rest of the class worked on photographing the house and the surrounding area.

   Leaving the first house we also visited houses that were still standing, these houses showed us just the amount of damage that can be done from arson, not only to one home but to the houses next door as well.

  On our final stop the class witnessed what appeared as the American dream burned to the ground, a white picket fence surrounding a pile of rubble. A man who lived in the neighborhood talked with our sound team and really gave us information we could have never known. He told us about all the abandoned houses in town and how easily they are vandalized. I now kind of understand how houses can be forgotten about and torched. 

  This project was one of the largest photography projects I have had to work on. It was a difficult challenge, and took a lot of courage but it was also something I will never forget and learned so much from. 

   I think arson deserves much more attention and notice so others can learn and maybe try to fix this problem.
   The final project from Soundslides will be given to rustwire.com, a website that focuses on areas like this in both destruction and beauty.