Portland Photography Journal: Belmont Street

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As Real Estate Agents, we tend to take a great amount of pride in knowing Portland's many neighborhoods well. Sometimes, just to stay up to date on a neighborhood I'll make it a point to get out of my car, and pound the pavement on foot. For this particular post I decided to load up a camera up with some 35mm T-Max film and walk around Belmont Street in southeast Portland. I decided to make some photographs of this neighborhood for two reasons.

First, PDX Urban recently settled into a new office space on the intersection of 47th and Belmont Street. This is incredibly exciting. As much as I enjoy working from home it will be wonderful to have an official office space to go into every day and to meet with clients. Right now as I type this some contractors are in the space knocking down walls and preparing the space for some brand new furniture. I’m very excited!

Second, if you walk through this neighborhood, you get an amazing sense for how much it is changing and for how much it will always stay the same. New housing developments mix together with structures that have been standing strong in Portland for decades. Old shops and cafes mingle with trendy food cart pods and clothing boutiques. Heck, you can still go to a video rental shop along Belmont Street. How cool is that!?

Despite all the bustling activity along Belmont Street it is difficult not to feel a sense of calm and community in this district. When I walked around making these images it was about eighty degrees and sunny. Every third house or so had its occupants sitting out on the porch, giving me friendly hellos, as I passed by with a 35mm SLR slung over my shoulder. More than one person stopped me in my tracks and asked if I was taking pictures on film. I love when that happens. Having the opportunity to talk with a perfect stranger about photography is never a bad thing in my book.

I hope you enjoy looking at these images as much as I enjoyed making them!

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Alexis Kennedy

My name is Alexis Kennedy, welcome to my site! I have a passion for making images wherever and whenever I can. I seek to capture humanity and the world around me with a focus on the figure. Film, digital, pinhole, and instant photography are all fair game for me.


I grew up in the California Bay Area and started taking photography seriously in High School. I was one of the lucky few who had a chance to go to a high school with a working darkroom and a teacher who understood that making images was an art form – care and patience was a necessity in the image making process from start to finish.


Later in life I attended the University of California in Santa Cruz where I received a Bachelors Degree in the History of Art and Visual Culture. After having my fill of the California sunshine I packed up my life and moved to the Pacific Northwest. I quickly found the overcast skies, lush forests, cooler temperatures, and creative communities to be a perfect match for my work.


Over the years I have exhibited my photographs in several galleries and art shows including the Seattle Erotic Arts Festival and Cascade AIDS Project. I’ve published a few books and taught workshops up and down the west coast of the United States. Through this site I’m hoping to share my work and perhaps inspire others along the way.