Though our Feature Fridays have been on hiatus, this week we’re excited bring you an interview with a new-to-Brooklyn photographer whose work we’ve admired for quite some time via his blog.

Matt Heidelberger is a street photographer and Indianapolis native who has long explored his subjects through historical context and observations about the changing nature of the American Midwest urban center. After months of splitting his time between Indy and NYC, he decided to head east on a more permanent basis. Now residing in Bed-Stuy, Matt is happy to call Brooklyn home and we’re thrilled to welcome him here! He graciously agreed to do an interview, so check out his insightful responses below, and make sure to head over to his blog or Flickr stream to keep up with his work!

For the Love of Brooklyn: First of all, welcome to Brooklyn! We’re so glad you’re here! What has brought you this fine borough, and which neighborhood have you chosen to call yours? Any first impressions as a newcomer?

Matt Heidelberger: Thanks, I’m quite glad to call myself a Brooklyn resident! As an Indianapolis native nearing the age of 30, I felt I have reached the limit as to what Indianapolis can provide for me (culturally, professionally, etc.). Don’t get me wrong, Indianapolis is and always will be my home town that I love, but I needed a change. I chose to move to New York City because it has always been a dream in the back of my mind to live in a metropolis since I was very young. My best friend lives in Manhattan, so I had the peace of mind of not making the move completely alone. I checked out Manhattan, Brooklyn, The Bronx, and Queens as possible places to call home.

I ultimately chose Brooklyn because it appealed to me the most. It’s full of culture, history, and considerably more laid back than Manhattan. I know I made the correct choice for I feel quite at home here. I live in a brownstone in Bedford-Stuyvesant, or as the neighborhood locals call it, Bed Stuy. One thing I noticed about my neighborhood and Brooklyn as a whole is that it is in a process of great change. On my street alone in Bed Stuy, modern mid-rise condos are making the scene in between brownstones and industrial buildings. It’s both exciting (to see your neighborhood thrive) and worrisome (to wonder how much longer a guy of middle class means, such as myself, can continue to afford to live in the neighborhood) to see this process underway.

FTLOB: Over on your blog, The Heidelberger Papers, you’ve long explored themes of urban geography and renewal through your photography — not only in your hometown of Indianapolis, but in loads of other cities all over the US. What are the most poignant or meaningful observations you’ve made about how Indianapolis has been changing over the last several years?

MH: Indianapolis has completely reinvented itself over the past few decades. It was a Midwest industrial city that instead of facing decades of decline like many of its neighbors (Detroit and Cleveland to name a few) it transformed to a service, hosting, and a sporting events based economy. I remember when I was a kid, we didn’t go downtown; not only was there not much going on there, but it was considered a risky endeavor to walk around. That all changed in the mid-90′s; conventions are hosted all year round, there’s night and street life, there are places to shop and dine, and nobody really feels in anyway threatened to walk the streets.

Indianapolis is, however, not free of problems. Homelessness is a large problem; interestingly enough, based solely on my observations, I notice it to be worse there than in NYC. Spend a decent amount of time in Indy, and you will notice homeless people sleeping on stoops of abandoned/closed buildings and sidewalks and there will be actual colonies of dozens living under one overpass. While downtown is successful, the neighborhoods of the inner city struggle with blight, violent crime, and a lack of transportation options.

FTLOB: You’re also well-traveled in this part of the country and have featured Brooklyn numerous times on your blog. How do the two urban geographies and sense of local ‘neighborhood’ compare, in your eyes? Does this easily translate through photography?

MH: The sense of neighborhood is what makes Brooklyn so cool. Manhattan may be the most well known gem of New York City, but I have observed that it can never compare to Brooklyn when it comes to a sense of neighborhood community. The urban ‘neighborhood’ in Indianapolis for example, struggles because, while there are people like myself that lived in the city center, most people only go to work there, then can’t hop into their cars fast enough and go home to a far out meandering suburb somewhere.

One thing I always try to do when photographing a neighborhood, whether it’s a neighborhood like Park Slope or a struggling neighborhood in the South Bronx, is to show and respect the human side of it. This is what I try to communicate in my photography.

FTLOB: Now that you’ve gotten a good start on exploring NYC, what are some of your favorite places to shoot? Any recommendations for us from a seasoned explorer?

MH: I typically like to shoot neighborhoods, infrastructure, and anything else that satisfies my gritty palette. Some of my favorite places in Brooklyn are stops along elevated subway lines for cool perspective on neighborhoods (such as the stops along the D and Z trains). I recently went shooting in Red Hook, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Shooting near Dumbo and Vinegar Hill quench my infrastructure and bridge thirst. I also live to shoot at night, and have found Long Island City, Queens to be fun to shoot when the sun goes down. The Meatpacking District is also fun to photograph at night if you don’t mind traversing all of the inebriated party people.

FTLOB: And finally, here’s the requisite question: What’s the craziest photo story you have while shooting?

MH: My craziest experiences, interestingly enough, have all happened in Indianapolis. I’ve had several encounters with hostile people and animals, cops, and have had many close encounters with automobiles. There are two experiences that come to mind that I find worth mentioning.

The first is an ironic tale as to how I almost ended up getting pinched for walking on the railroad tracks. One of my favorite ways to shoot in Indy is by walking the elevated railroad viaducts that go through the city. It gives you some cool perspectives while keeping your presence discreet, but it also happens to have the disadvantage of being against the law. On this particular walk, I encountered a few downtrodden-looking guys smoking a crystalline substance from a glass pipe; I minded my business, as they did theirs. I walked for awhile and these two transit cops in a white SUV came out of nowhere and approached me. The whole situation was quite humorous actually; they turned on the cop lights, one of the officers walked up to me, while the other hung back with his hand on a gun or tazer (couldn’t tell from where I was standing) and proceeded to question me. They let me off with a warning, but I guess my camera seemed more suspicious than a few tweekers hanging around on the tracks.

My second story involves no law enforcement, or any other people for that matter. I was wanting to get some decent shots of an old closed coke and gas plant. The place is secured by fences and razor wire, and while I know of some urban explorers that would have no trouble scaling them, I’m a little large for those kind of antics. The only way I found possible for me to infiltrate the facility was through a small waterway that runs through it. Sounds simple right? Not so much, for this waterway was disgusting. Not only is it an outlet for sewer overflows, but it is heavily polluted from 100 years of burning coal. My feet kept getting stuck in this substance that I knew for sure wasn’t mud and the smell was a ghastly mix of sewage and volatile hydrocarbons. I eventually got in and got some cool shots, but I still wonder how many types of cancer I might develop in the future from this experience, LOL.

Ah, the plight of an urban explorer. Moral of the story: Avoid volatile hydrocarbons when possible and embrace regular vaccinations! Thanks so much to Matt for the interview, and have a great weekend!