A Photographer Walks Through Tulsa

Some people have told Mike Simons that his latest photography project is putting his life at risk. Simons, a staff photographer for the Tulsa World, is walking all 16 miles of Peoria Avenue, a busy street that slices from one end of Tulsa, Oklahoma, to the other, traversing the city’s richest and poorest neighborhoods along the way, the most rural to the densest. He started in North Tulsa, one of the rougher parts of town, and he heard from a few folks who thought it wasn’t a good idea.

“There were several readers who were very concerned for my safety,” he wrote in the second installment of “Street Level,” an occasional series that will run until he has documented the whole street, mile by mile. “I received phone calls and emails warning me of walking in many of these areas unarmed ... I appreciate the concern, however I am a community journalist. I have long given up any notion of being some kind of foreign correspondent. I love being a community journalist, but you cannot be a community journalist if you are afraid of the community you cover.”