This year, for obvious reasons, Halloween is going to be a tad different. By this time in October, I’ve usually gotten an email from my apartment complex with instructions on how to participate in treat-giving. Every year, my wife and I have handed out treats to the princesses and monsters who’ve come to our door looking for spoils. But this year, there’s been no email. Maybe real life is just too scary and creepy.
I imagine there will still be people wearing their best costumes to parties or to trick or treat. But I also imagine that the number of people doing this will be far smaller than in Halloweens past. As for me and my wife, we’ve put out Halloween decorations and are enjoying some classic movies to commemorate the day. We did get some Halloween candy, but somehow it has already mysteriously disappeared.
Post photographer Matt McClain is always looking for photos that help us understand who we are. For years now, he has delved deeply into activities and events that contribute to how we see ourselves. His curiosity has led him to photograph everything from baseball enthusiasts dedicated to preserving the way the game was played in the 19th century to backyard brawlers to less dramatic but equally important things such as searching for waterholes and how communities adapt in the face of life-altering things such as global pandemics.
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This time around, McClain is taking us on a tour of some of our area’s urban legends.
Here’s what he has to say about his latest project:
“As Halloween approaches, I set out to photograph images looking at some of the DMV’s most notable urban legends.
"In my 20-plus-year career in photojournalism, I have always loved a visual challenge. This series definitely fit that criteria. What I aimed for were images that give a foreboding feeling and mood. It became all about the place and less about the legend.
"To achieve this, I planned my visits around certain times of the day and weather to give me the best chance to create the right feeling for each photograph. I used this approach in everything I photographed, from the Three Sisters Islands in the Potomac River to the ‘Bunny Man Bridge’ outside Clifton, Va.
"As with most urban legends, there is usually a sliver of fact that is at the root of the myth. I feel this is what makes these stories so enduring and unsettling. The urban legends I ended up highlighting were all written about in The Washington Post in articles ranging from the early 1900s to the early 2000s. ”
In Sight is The Washington Post’s photography blog for visual narrative. This platform showcases compelling and diverse imagery from staff members and freelance photographers, news agencies and archives. If you are interested in submitting a story to In Sight, please complete this form.
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