This work began in the summer of 2013 when Charlee began photographing McKees Rocks, a small industrial town across the Ohio River from Pittsburgh. Late that year, she began sharing her work with Jim, and he wrote poems in response to her photos, as in their previous collaborations. In this project, we are attempting to bring people and place together, to focus on the older working-class homes and the ongoing lives emerging out these doors and windows.

Why have we chosen McKees Rocks? Perhaps it chose us. It is the site where the oldest human bones in eastern North America have been discovered, a place where George Washington appears to have actually slept, and the site of the bloody Pressed Steel Car Strike of 1909, a major event in labor history. Many of the old company-owned houses are still occupied. Steeped in this long history, it is a community with complexity and character. It fits neither the story of decay and ruin, nor the story of economic recovery relying on high-tech start-ups—two easy narratives latched onto by mainstream media when it gives any coverage at all to the “rust belt.” One need only look at the emergence of “ruin porn” in a place like Detroit to see how artists can exploit despair for the sake of their art in these rust-belt narratives. In communities across America, the working-class continues to live quiet, ordinary lives while their stories remain untold. While we are not propagandists for the revival of the rust belt, we are also not interested in creating beautiful obituaries. McKees Rocks’ story is more complex and nuanced, like any true story of survival—small defeats, small victories, but always carrying on.