JANUARY 18, 2018 // 11 Another “Tell Me Astoria” post fea- tured local drag queen “Ginger Vitus” — aka Joshua Conklin — who was quoted speaking about Astoria: “Everyone in this town looks out for each other. Everyone is mostly kind. I think in this day and age, especially in big cities people kind of lose that.” Coming to Astoria The main hub of “Tell Me Astoria” is Instagram (@ tellme.astoria), but all of Eckhardt’s posts are shared to his Facebook page to reach a larger audience. Each Insta- gram post has several photos of a featured Astoria resident, along with a small story. Eckhardt’s interviews usually revolve around a basic question: How did you get to Astoria? Eckhardt’s family — which includes his wife, Alethea, and their three chil- dren — have their own coming-to-Astoria story, one that involved a few compromis- es. Though their ultimate goal was to live in Astoria, the family is in Long Beach for now because of limited housing. “Living across the river,” he said, “makes it even more difficult to get to know people,” Eckhardt said. “So I had to figure out a way to have a reason to meet people other than the normal network- ing-type thing.” However, Eckhardt, 32, a financial consultant, was able to locate his business, Thrivent Financial, on Astoria’s Pier 39. Eckhardt’s passion for photography took shape about three years ago, but he’s had an interest in visual art forms like filmmaking since his youth. “I had a camcorder in high school and I wanted to go to film school, but didn’t end up going,” he said. Eckhardt got more serious about film after high school. He be- friended local punk bands in central Texas and began filming music videos for them. As his skills evolved, Eckhardt found inspiration in iconic photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank and Irving Penn. He started with landscapes but, he said, “I’ve always wanted to take more photos of people, because I love people.” MITCH ECKHARDT PHOTOS A rainbow on the Columbia River Collecting stories Eckhardt’s favorite type of photo is “the classic headshot, where a person is looking at the camera and their face fills the frame.” Sometimes people can be self-conscious about the very things that make them unique, he said. “The things that make us unique can be seen in our face. In our day-to-day, we don’t look in each other’s eyes; it can be very intimate. We are sometimes afraid to share who we are.” Eckhardt doesn’t have an end goal; LEFT: Jody Patterson Morrill MIDDLE: Joshua Conklin wears the shirt of his drag queen persona, “Ginger Vitus.” RIGHT: Tony Coulombe he just wants to photograph more people and get to know them. “The main thing is to keep meeting people, keep collecting stories,” he said. For now, Eckhardt is anchored in his love for Astoria and its people. “We didn’t move our family all the way up here just to leave again. I don’t want to build my financial practice back up again, so this is it,” he said. “I want to build my practice here in Astoria and raise my kids here.” Interested in participating in “Tell Me Astoria”? Email Eckhardt at mitcheck- hardt@gmail.com. CW