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Michael Mulley

Celebrating its tenth anniversary in October, Michael Mulley’s College Street Gallery (244 Allen Street, 882-9727, collegestreetgallery.tripod.com) epitomizes the small gallery aesthetic in Buffalo: The walls feature the work of remarkable local artists, Mulley included, who struggle to get the attention they deserve elsewhere; it hosts great, often raucous openings; it hangs on by the skin of its teeth. Currently Mulley, a photographer, is exhibiting a series of photos of Allentown in the 1930s, which he acquired from the Allentown Association and printed. In April there will be a show of work and an in-gallery performance by John Lombardo. Booked solid through the summer, the gallery’s busiest months lie ahead—and now Mulley has opened a second space, Queen City Gallery, on the first floor of the Market Arcade Building (617 Main Street, 11am-4pm, 856-2839). Whereas the College Street Gallery showcases work by other artists, as well as Mulley’s photographs, the smaller Queen City Gallery is devoted, at least for the time being, to Mulley’s work—specifically his photographs of Buffalo landmarks, past and present. There’s a grand opening on Friday, March 16, 5-9pm. Artvoice stopped in at Queen City Gallery to talk with Mulley this week:

Artvoice: What drew you down here to the Market Arcade?

Michael Mulley: I’ve looked in the past when there have been vacancies, and this was just the perfect little space. The location is perfect—CEPA is across the hall, and the Visitors Center, the Landmark Society, the Martin House Restoration Corporation’s down here. There are a lot of organizations down here that are motivated, like myself, by the same thing, which is love of the city.

AV: You’ve built a reputation for this sort of work: photos of buildings that aren’t there anymore, streetscapes.. How’d that happen?

MM: I started almost 20 years ago. I grew up in Batavia, and I went to a community college—Genesee Community College—and I started taking photography classes, one after another. One of the things that attracted me to photography was street shooting, just going around with your camera and shooting. I would come to Buffalo and I would walk around, in the freezing cold usually, and take people pictures, and some building pictures too. It sort of evolved from that mindset.

AV: Is there a market for these pictures?

MM: I’ve heard this, I don’t know if it’s necessarily the truth, but I’ve heard that Buffalo is the number one city for buying memorabilia of itself. That may or may not be true, but I have pictures from other places, I’ve traveled a bit. You know, I have the Eiffel Tower, I have Times Square. People don’t want pictures of the Eiffel Tower or Times Square; they want pictures that mean something to them, like the Freddie’s Donuts picture, which I didn’t really think anything of when I took. It was just a cool old sign. Needless to say, if you’re 30 years old, you’ve got a Freddie’s Donuts story.

AV: Or a Ray Flynn’s story, or a Harbor Inn story.

MM: That’s just one example. I have pictures of other things that were torn down. Or just City Hall or St. Louis Church or even some of the industrial stuff—things that you wouldn’t necessarily think of as scenic. The end of Smith Street has a terrific old industrial view. It’s Buffalo’s idea of a scenic overlook. Sometimes those sell just as good as the more landmark images.

AV: So you can make a living this way?

MM: It’s really rewarding for me, because, I mean, I’m a photographer—I’m going to take the picture anyway. To me selling turned into a bonus. I didn’t start out with the idea that I’m going to sell my pictures and make a living. It sort of evolved into this situation were people have a huge attachment to the place where they live.