THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

When I first started making pictures in Tucson, I didn’t have any real intentions.  I remember seeing younger people walking around in nearly 110-degree heat and being a little baffled.  But it also made sense – I was the same way as a kid.  Growing up in Texas, summers were brutal, but they never kept us inside.

Matthew Genitempo in Chandler/Genitempo, 2025

It’s June, the sun’s hot and white in my eyes, and a dirty kid named Peter rides up, thinking he can use the jumps we built from old real estate signs.  We spent all of June clearing trash and tangled barbwire from this dirty lot behind Taco Bell so we could have a good place to ride our bikes.  Jay even had to get a tetanus shot when he cut his arm on an old mattress spring.   And Peter just shows up.

Poirier/Thunderbird, 2007