Picture Show: Buffalo, New York, All America City

It's weird that Buffalo, a city that seems so cold and bleak, with dying industries and a dwindling population, would be honored as an All America City. The award, given out by the National Civic League, honors communities "for effectively addressing their most critical challenges," and the Queen City has won it twice in the last 15 years. The photographer Joseph Tripi, noting the strangeness of the award, captures both the seeming desolation and remoteness and the bright young faces one might or might not expect to find in a fading community like Buffalo. In the course of creating his ongoing (and, he hopes, lifelong) photo project "All America City," Tripi plunges us into his sometimes curious world of bleak weather and harsh exteriors. What follows is a selection from that series, captions by the artist: