Urban Bremerton
I am excited to announce a new project I’ve been working on for the better part of the past year… Urban Bremerton: A Journal of Bremerton’s Built Environment. The book is made up of architectural photography by me - David Albright, essays from Kevin Walthall, Frances Lee and myself, history from Josh Farley, and reflections from artists Amy Burnett, Ben Gannon and Joey Vetlkamp.
When people talk about Bremerton, they often talk about what surrounds it—the ferries, the water, the mountains. They place it in the past—how it boomed in WWII, or give a nod to the future—“it has so much potential!”
But what about the city itself, today? Bremerton has a unique built environment—a compact downtown with art-deco flourishes, surrounded by quirky neighborhoods chock-full of tiny cottage homes arranged chaotically along alleyways.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, I filled my time by walking about the city photographing the buildings and streetscapes that caught my eye. This journal is the result of those walks, accompanied by essays and reflections from local writers. The goal is to capture the spirit of Bremerton - not the spirit of its historical heyday or it’s imagined future, but as it exists today.
What people are saying
“Albright captures a beautiful, and realistic view of one of the Puget Sound’s cities that remains largely untouched by the boom of Seattle. This book captures the magic of the seemingly mundane, paired with the passion of locals who love their town. It artfully captures a time capsule of a city in the middle of transition. … I feel like owning this book is like owning a piece of rapidly changing history, and I’m proud to have it in my collection.”
“A brilliant visual essay capturing downtown Bremerton. Amongst the isolation of quarantine in 2020, as time feels both sped up and glacially slow, David Albright turned his lens to the unique streets of Bremerton. The pictures don’t capture the most obvious places people might associate with this Navy town (The Ferry Terminal, the War monuments), but they find the quirk and the history through its residential and commercial architecture. The peopleless photos are a haunting reminder of both the unprecedented impact of quarantine and Bremerton’s current limbo stasis… I for one hope that these photos are as recognizable in 20 years as they are today, maintaining the quirk and the history, but instead of quiet captures these scenes are full of life and bustle, of a city, once again, thriving.”
