BUS 75: HIDDEN PORTLAND | Geoffrey Hiller

June 20, 2024 - July 19, 2024

Welcome to this photo exhibit that explores the great unknown of Portland via the #75 TriMet bus. This long, winding eastside line is a vein of life stretching close to 20 miles with 131 stops.

From upper St. Johns to downtown Milwaukie, the 75 passes a vast array of places and spaces that are often out of view and out of the ordinary. Oddball specialty stores, old-school barbershops, subterranean music scenes, ethnic cultural centers, family-owned sausage parlors and tire purveyors, and unknown spots where people are doing uncommon things.

BUS 75: HIDDEN PORTLAND depicts the human, natural and built environment in these back pockets of Portland and documents the rich diversity of life along the 75 line. It also brings to light the gentrification and changes now transforming our city.

Portland photographer Geoffrey Hiller and writer Tom Vandel rode the bus and explored these places with images and commentary for this 2015-2017 project. The blog (bus75.org) received a project grant from the Regional Arts & Culture Council and support from Pro Photo Supply. The work has appeared in The Atlantic, BBC, the Smithsonian Instagram feed, The Eye of Photography (France).

June 20, 2024 - July 19, 2024

BUS 75: HIDDEN PORTLAND | Geoffrey Hiller | Image 1/4
BUS 75: HIDDEN PORTLAND | Geoffrey Hiller | Image 2/4
BUS 75: HIDDEN PORTLAND | Geoffrey Hiller | Image 3/4
BUS 75: HIDDEN PORTLAND | Geoffrey Hiller | Image 4/4

Image Credit(s): Photography by Geoffrey Hiller

Text by Tom Vandel