William (Drew) Kelly
Drew Kelly (@townscrier) is a Houston Firefighter, living in Montgomery, Texas with his wife and two children.
Drew got into Photography like many, through skateboarding in high school with a couple of friends, who’d all film and photograph each other skating. After picking up a camera, he found that he wasn’t looking to do much within the photography field at the time. It wasn’t until a few years later and the start of the Covid - 19 Pandemic, while raising his first child and looking to document their upbringing that Drew returned to photography, picking up a Fujifilm and learning everything he could about how the camera works.Around March of 2023, Drew discovered some photographers through instagram that blew him away. At the time then looking to emulate the styles of these other artists.
"Shoutout to @doomstache, @c.m.thomas_, @dadwilder and @fuji.hunter! If it wasn’t for those accounts, I wouldn’t be doing this or having as much fun with photography as I am. Nowadays I feel I’ve started to find my style."
Drew is drawn to shooting mundane oddities in small towns, with Texas being such a huge state, filled with these hidden gems. Drew has always been infatuated with small town living. "Growing up in a small town in Ohio, It’s a vibe I just can’t get away from."
The series ‘Dear God.’ materialised from a trip last year, to Yellowstone National Park. On the way to the park, Drew and his wife stumbled across a tiny church sitting on the outskirts of a gas station. "I’m always drawn to churches or religious artefacts for whatever reason, maybe it’s a sign I need to go to church more."
When asked if the work was an accurate representation of small town US. Drew had this to say:
"I don’t see a lot of my older work showing the current state of the US because most of it shows things that have been sitting for a long time. A lot of change has been happening the past few years. Fancy townhouses are being built all around and, in the neighbourhood, amongst the low-income ones."
Drew is currently working on a long-term project titled “How Long Is Now” documenting the fire house that he’s been apart of for the past 9 years. Through a mix of portraits, topographies, oddities found around the station and area, and the fire house’s history.
If you’re as excited to see more from Drew as we are, you can find him on instagram and his website linked below.