Emily Miller saw this old, decrepit schoolhouse across the street from her church in Waco, Tex. every Sunday this past summer. The building was recently burned down as part of a string of arsonist felonies, but the “crackpot” lady who owns it, Miller explains, refused to let the city bulldoze it.
The remnants of this building lie in the part of Waco that is rampant with prostitution and drug-addiction. Miller sees her photograph as emblematic of the fact that “no one is willing to clean up either the physical area or the crime in this part of the city.”Miller took this photo with a Holga camera—a kind of toy camera made completely out of plastic. “It’s the most simple kind of photography,” says Miller. “You can only press the shutter button.” Reduced to the subject matter in front of her and unable to control any other aspect of the photo, Miller says that with a Holga camera, “you never know what you’re going to get.”
