Coming up on Gallery America.

It's a historic preservation spectacular.

First, we meet a team who've made it their missio to preserve abandoned buildings.

Then we meet a photographer who preserves both historic photography techniques and indigenous heritage.

Finally, we meet a man who preserves the old 50s styling of cars through his new lowrider bicycles.

Hello, Oklahoma.

Welcome to Gallery America.

I'm Jonathan Thompson.

Today we're at some old abandoned stuff.

Places like this are built heritage.

They're a snapshot of what America was like when they were built.

A lot of the times, they just end up fading away.

That' where our first story comes in.

You're about to meet two Oklahomans who have made it their mission to turn the tide on that.

Check it out.

When you look at historic build it is the backbone of our countr and unfortunately we are losing it at a rapid pace It's important for these buildings to be saved because it shows us who was here before us.

It almost feels like buildings are people in a way because they have their own stor They have their own presence.

They have their own personality And once it's gone, it's it's gone forever.

That's not something that you ca home.

Just because a building is aband doesn't mean it's the end of the I'm Michael Schwarz.

I'm Emily Cowan, and I'm the pre of Abandoned Atlas Foundation and the president of the abandon Foundation.

All right.

My goal as a co-president with help find ways to get people int And wanting to see these places Show them how it can be done, why it should be done.

And to help give a voice to bui that oftentimes get overlooked.

What started as a simple website 15 years ago has grown into a full fledged no covering 25 different state.

We photograph the properties, inside and out, as thoroughly as possible, a if we were to lose the building We then take those photo and publish them online for free along with a full historic write I believe that that research should be fre and history should be free.

Every time that I walk through a abandoned building.

I just.

You know, it's just it it speaks to me.

I enjoy talking to people and finding the firsthand storie and doing the firsthand.

Like digging through libraries, through documents found inside the buildings.

That's what excites me.

It's like, no, you know, someth been hidden under a shelf for 60 And it's a piece of the puzzle.

What happened there?

“Coaches association, regional coach of the year.

I am more of the behind the scen I am the one that does all the r on the background.

Newspapers.com is vital.

We use Google Books a lot.

And if you go on Google Book and you put in, you know, a sear it will show you every book that that has that search term.

At any given time, I'm working on over 60 articles across 25 different states.

All right.

So down here is the science lab.

I've now kin of become in charge of the YouTu or like more of the documentary to really advocate for these pla Like, that's the beauty of YouTu Like if you can create somethin that captures somebody's interes that may not have known about th before.

I mean, that's so much power.

.

My interest in abandoned buildin actually started when I was in high school.

Back in 2019 I was freshly out of high school I've always wanted to be a filmm I had no idea what I wanted to d My friends and I were shooting like, bang bang, shoot em up movies with fake gun and then I had started exploring abandoned buildings.

Michael and his friends use abandoned locations as back for their action packed short fi So we went there to go film.

And then I found myself just ta pictures because I thought it wa And I was like I wonder if there's any more of So I went home and I googled it.

I found a very very early version of the websit Ben in Oklahoma was started by J Tyler Moore and Cody Cooper in 2008 2009 area.

I contacted the owner just being a being a fanboy and and to my surprise, the owner was like, yeah, come you know, join in what we're doi Well, here we ar inside the library of Dungey Aca You're good.

Yep.

Joe, you got this.

You got this.

Michael joined the team in 201 and contributed for many years b moving away during the same time the original team moved on and the site fell dorman and started going on my own road I was just tagging a band in Okl in my in my stuff, knowing they weren't active.

I was like, you know, maybe one So I was living out in Californi for a few years.

I went up ther to be the next Hollywood directo when I decided to come back to O to try something different.

The first thing I thought of was all right, going back to Oklahoma, I want to band in Oklahoma.

And then I got a DM from Michael I think it was the day before my and he had said, you know, hey, abandone Oklahoma is back, would you like And I remember fangirling a litt I was like oh my gosh, I've never been aske to be part of something like thi when I started.

I remember the first time that M and I explored together.

He made me go up and knock on the next door neig and ask them about that building And I was so terrified at first.

I was not a people talker.

I did not like doing that.

But then I started listening to to this person talk about their memories, their.

And that was when I think the the switch flipped of the passio of being able to give people these tangible memorie that they can hold on forever.

Once it's on the internet, it's not going anywhere.

Even if the building comes down if they like expose.

The original ceiling.

It'll be so much more room in he With their powers combined and with the help of photojourna across the country, Emily and M expanded to the abandoned Atlas Foundation, a nationwide nonprof dedicated to preserving history all over the country.

I think that is a part of our mission, save things, that we find that d in these buildings before they demolished and thrown away forev That is the reason why I do it is it's not just for the buildin and giving them a voice but it's also for the people tha memories here.

Oh, what is this?

The.

Oh, I found it.

Emily.

What?

Seminole Chieftain Football, 200 Oh my gosh.

Seminole Chieftains, 2001 footba highlight video.

Oh, gosh, we found it.

We found the jackpot.

I found kind of a new passion re It's the VHS tapes.

Sometimes there's old VHS tapes laying around.

I'm not really interested in the mass produced ones.

I'm talking abou the ones that are unique, one of that are specific to either that or that town, that city that, has been forgotten about.

And there's only one copy of it, those moments that might be special t that live on those VHS tapes wil not lose it.

Right now, you can buy an abandoned home i Bluff, Arkansas, for as low as $ When it comes to YouTube, ultimately our goal is to then get people to be more acti interested in what buildings we' about, the history behind them and most importantly, the advoca “architect Bruce Goff, who is r for his unconventional designs.

But why did he build this one?

” I got into him walking up that This iconic church was featured in time magazine in Forever.

I dive deep into the analytics, the retention rate to figure out, all right, where am I losing people?

Where do they stop watching?

And I try to figure out wh they're stopping, stopping, watc And how can I how can I create more interest?

Abandoned analysts now partners with preservationists, property developers and activist to create videos for at risk bui I'm 74 years old.

I can remember laying on pews looking up out of the the window I had a drea and so anyway, in that dream, I I felt like the Lord said that he wanted this restored.

And so that's been, purpose in my life for over 20 y Well, you know, I've just gotten to know, Michael and, their, their heart seems really good because it' been the one of the most encoura that someone that really has the same heart towards these, these buildings in these type of that that we do.

This is not a.

A field that you get many wins i And when we do get wins like this building here is some that we shout from the rooftops.

Seminole High Schoo is going to be restored into aff housing apartments.

This is a huge win for the commu in this neighborhood.

But we're having a huge housing in America right now.

And, being able to turn this bui into affordable housing rather than just sitting here being vandalized, I think is a lot more of a better purpose.

We have a huge success story in Kansas, of the Menninger Clockt that, was actually slated for de So we came in and we actually, it was very nerve wracking, had to sign a contract with thei that if we were not successful in finding a buyer within 90 day they would have grounds to demolish the building.

We put together a developer sear saying like, hey, this building is about to be dem this is the time to buy it.

And they were willing to donate the property.

It was withi maybe a week or two of putting o a developer search video that f a buyer out of Kansas City, Miss And they are, underway to restore that.

Now, I don't think we've been in before.

Okay.

Especially in this.

My mom was like you know, you need to get a real if you're ever going to move out You need to get a job.

And I was just like, no, I have to stick this out.

I know it's going to pay off lik it just needs time.

The way that I've changed to this is realizing that I don't need to be in Holly to make a difference.

I don't need to be in Hollywood to to do something I'm passionate about.

It is just incredible.

And I love doing what I do every and just being able to again, follow that passion.

You can see more from Michae and Emily by going to abandoned ok.com or going to the abandoned Atlas YouTube channel.

Next, we g to Ohio to meet a photographer who's preserving heritage in a different way, using an 18th century photographic process.

He takes photos of indigenous people, preserving both their heritage and the heritage of photography itself.

Take a look.

Well, I'm an artist and a photographer.

I am the progra head of photography at the Santa Fe Community College.

I grew up between, San Francisco, California, and, Tuba City, Arizona which is on the Navajo Nation.

And my dad was Irish and Welsh.

My mom was Navajo.

I think one of the reason I was so drawn to photography, because when I found photography it was like this, this language that enabled me to kind of express myself in a way that I, you know, I couldn't, linguistically.

Some of the kind of early, forms of photography that I was involved in.

You know, traditional black and white.

I was really drawn to that kind of documentary kind of style.

You know, 36 shots to a raw.

It was a different, different time.

And, you know, now I, I use the digital camera all the time, but I am drawn to historic process.

So, you know, in particular, some of the images you're seeing in the show and were made with a proces called, wet plate or wet plate collodion, was developed in 1851 and was kind of the photographic process until about 1880.

So the first step of the process is to take the plastic off with the wet plate process.

It's it's a bit labor intensive.

You're essentially making your own film.

They call it wet plate because it has to stay wet, throughout the process.

Otherwise you don't get a, an image.

Step one is you get a plate, either glass or black metal, and you pour this stuf called collodion on that plate.

Collodio pretty much sticks to anything.

And it also has some chemistries in it that when it's combined with silver nitrate, and this happens in a dark room rate.

So you, you pour the collodion on the plate.

You take that plate to about of silver nitrate.

You drop it in there three minutes later.

A, emulsion has formed a light sensitive emulsion.

And so at that point, you have to use a safe light, or do this in the dark, right.

And so you load that plate into a film holder, carr that film holder to the camera, and, you know, you've already kind of set up your subject and they're kind of waiting.

You make the exposure.

And then, with this process, you know, one of the great things is you can take the subject with you back to the darkroom, and they get to experience the actual kind of magic of, of analog photography.

Right.

And so you have that exposed negative.

You take it out of the film holder, you pour a developer on there and negative image starts to transform.

And so you kind of judge tha and then you stop it with water.

And then when you put it in the fixer, this amazing thing happens.

And at that point yo can actually turn the light on.

So it kind of does this transition, this magic transition from a negative image to a positive image.

So it kind of becomes this foggy kind of, you know, it' not something that you can read.

And then out of that emerge this beautiful positive image.

And you know, people are, I think, really moved and fascinated.

And every time I see it, I'm just like re-energized.

I'm like yeah, let's go make some more.

So with, the civics project or the critical indigenous photographic exchange, which is what it stands for.

I'm using a historic photographic process to kind of investigate portraiture, kind of thinking about what photography would be if if indigenous people invented it, you know, would there be a different kind of set of ideas, kind of protocols in, in relatio to, to making someone's image?

It's a fairly kind of intimate process.

You know, I think there' a certain level of vulnerability that you kind of extend or offer.

When I use what it enables me to kind of slow things down.

It takes about 30 minutes to, to make one portrait so I can have kind of a, you know, a slower engagement with an individual and kind of deciding how they want to be represented.

“...Years ago, you served the people in the Pueblo Revolt in 1680....” I was also incorporating another technology, a 21st century technology called augmented reality with the historic photographic process through the augmented reality technology.

I have been able to bridge like, this historic photographic image of her wit her performance as, as a dancer.

And I've called these talking tin types.

And, she will.

Canham is a violinist.

And he, did a rendition of Ten Little Indians, and he talks about, like, that song, that nursery rhymes relationship to kind of the history of genocide.

So, you know, you're you're kind of, I guess, moved by this nursery rhyme.

Almost.

But then I can hit over back head with, with, like, what it's really about, you know, and his kin of reframing of it, I think, is, you know, it's a pretty powerful, kind of expression, of, you know, indigeneity today that.

I hope that people are really drawn in to, you know, a kind of different way of looking at portraiture.

It's kind of unusual.

There's there's a certain level of uncertainty with, with this portraiture.

You know there's these strange chemical like aberrations that occurs in terms of the indigenous folks.

Hopefully people like are moved by like the diversity of, you know, agency of the people.

Yeah.

And I mean, on a broader level, I hope that it makes people think about, what it means to to share the portraiture process with someone, slowing things down and, you know, thinking about what it means to, to to make yourself vulnerable, to make yourself, like, available to, to this kind of, engagement.

I mean, every time I hav one of these kind of engagements or work with people in this way, I think it, you know, it excites me to make more.

And it just kind of propels the the project forward.

Finally, we're going to New Mexico for something much different.

Aaron Gonzalez is preserving history in a different way.

Inspired by classic cars, he welds together lowrider bicycles, preserving the lines and shapes of yesteryear for a new generation.

Check it out.

I think it's the shiny wheels and, the candy paint and, you know, the flaked out patterns.

And, I mean, I just I think it's beautiful.

When it comes to the bikes, I have a certain style.

Anybody that comes to me wanting a bike, they already know that it's going to be lower.

The ground.

If you want something high, then I'm probably not the person that come to.

I can't make a move.

The first low rider I ever seen was, a 50 Chevy truck.

It was all black, had chrome rims on it, and then, I picked up my first low rider magazine when I was younger.

And, I saw the bikes, and I saw the heart and everything about it, and just, I just.

I fell in love with it.

I see, baby, if you run away.

Baby.

When it comes to flow, when it comes to design, I always look at body lines on old cars.

And that's wher a lot of the designs come from.

The fleet line is something that I designed, and, that's kind of where that design came from.

The 48 fleetline.

I was once told, when you're designing something, especially a bicycle, you should be able to look at the bike from the beginning and not stop all the way to the very end.

And that' when you got the perfect flow.

And that's that's something that's always stuck with me.

When I'm in the zone, there's no distraction.

There's nothing tha that can break my concentration.

If I'm having a bad day, I just build bikes.

I have no fabrication background.

I have no welding background.

I didn't think I can do it, but I started doing it and I fell in love with it.

It's my art, it's my passion.

I love everything about it.

Just being able to create rideable art and create something that not only I can enjoy, but other people can enjoy.

And I think that New Mexico has a big culture when it comes to the lowrider scene.

.

And we're all different, you know?

Just nobody is the same.

And that' just kind of how the bikes are.

Every one of these bike are different, just like shoes or anything else, you know, it just kind of fits the individual perso that's actually riding the bike.

When it comes to the Oddfellows it's all about riding together.

While we're all riding, people kind of gravitate towards these bikes.

It's gonna.

Yeah.

They come out their house, they're all smiling.

They're happy.

Waving.

You know, it's just.

It's just a really good feeling.

It always puts a smile on someone's face.

You won't know what next is gonna come.

You got just.

I'm just saying it's, bikes that bring us together, but it's the people that make us stay.

It's about family.

It's about finding your gift.

It's about doing something that can take you awa from the everyday distractions.

You know, whatever you're going through during the week when you're on these bikes, you don't have a choice but to just slow dow and take everything around you.

It's just brings everyone together and just everyone's on the same page, you know, riding.

We're just in the moment of our lives.

Well, that's all the time we have for Gallery America.

Thank you so much for joining us.

As always, you can see past episodes on our website at TV Slash Gallery America.

And don't forget to follow us on Instagram at OETA Gallery.

We'll see you next time.

Until then, stay arty.

Oklahoma!