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