
Benjamin Moore recently had a competition, in which cities around the nation would enter to have THEIR main street re-painted by the well known company. 20 cities won… and Joplin was one of them.
I was called in by the folks at MomentumWW & Blue State Digital, the marketing agencies that represent Benajmin Moore, to shoot the whole thing; the celebration, the mayor’s walk through, the businesses & their freshly painted storefronts, and the owners themselves.
It’s been such a fun project to take on. During the phone meeting with Blue State Digital (who called in from New York) I was asked if I lived near Joplin and was very familiar with it at all… it was pretty great to be able to say I actually work downtown every day.
I’ve been so excited these last couple of years to see the new developments happening downtown and up and down main street in my city… so getting the opportunity to capture some of the business owners in their environments, and highlight the newest improvements to the district, is just the kind of thing I want to be shooting right now.
Here’s some highlights… so many more photos, but these are favorites so far…
Below are shots from the ‘walk through’ with Jeff Neal, the local contractor on the project (and the generous building owner who has let me use the ‘columbia traders’ space for third thursday photobooth events the last year or two)…

Mayor Melodee Colbert-Kean with business owner Tanya Scott and representatives from Spectrum Paints & MomentumWW.

the mayor taking a long look at the new paint on one of the storefronts.




Small Cakes made a KILLER cake that was actually modeled after main street. Beautiful and extremely tasty. I might or might not have left with 6 slices…

A few of the business owners I had the pleasure of photographing…

Dan is incredibly nice and owns the coolest guitar shop. I kinda started wishing I played one after wandering around in it for a moment or two.

This is Bunny Newton. He owns ‘Newton’s jewelry: a store his father started in 1938. I had fun directing the shots above, but liked the expression in the candid below.

A couple of quick snaps of downtownians I encountered during my back-and-forth travels up and down main…


Jane is the sweetest lady, owner of ‘upstairs boutique’, which actually neighbors my own studio here in Joplin.

Jef, his wife, & his son at ‘M & M bistro’, a very cozy diner specializing in international cuisine.

The closing shot might be my favorite. It’s the subtle little details that make it summarize main street so well.

Thanks for following along, everyone!
-Mark