High Vis Up There from p8 “There were different photographers get- ting cityscapes or photos of the homeless people downtown,” High Vis says. “It was very candid stuff, and nobody at the time was doing that in the city [of Dallas]. There were a couple of photographers, but it wasn’t a very known thing. It was more just of a hip thing to take a photo of your coffee. There was no street stuff, no gritty stuff. I walked back and forth to work every day and nobody was do- ing that, so I decided to start.” Then one day on the way home from work, he says he got the nerve to start work- ing on his tolerance to heights so he could shoot from above instead of on the ground. “I started seeing rooftop photographers on Instagram but not here in Dallas,” High Vis says. “I remember going to the parking garage that’s now the Drake building, I be- lieve, on Elm. Every day after work, I was going on the edge and getting the nerve to climb on the edge and hang my legs off of it. You have that adrenaline rush and that’s the reason to do it. That adrenaline rush and the pure rush of doing it. Those 10 days back and forth, it was definitely scary.” His first high-rise set of photos happened in 2014 on top of the Sheraton Dallas Hotel, and he started getting a lot more attention for taking risks. “That’s when they started to go, ‘Wait, who is this guy and how is he getting in our buildings?’” High Vis says. High Vis won’t do anything worse than trespassing to get his shots. Usually, gaining access is as simple as finding an open door where there shouldn’t be one at the moment. “To be honest, in the beginning, people 10 10 really didn’t care,” High Vis says. “I didn’t really get caught too much because it wasn’t a thing. Getting on the rooftop, it was pretty easy to just go up and down and I kind of al- ways put that as a thing. I never wanted to leave any trace that I was there. I just wanted the photos I took. I didn’t break and enter, but these buildings had security flaws, left a back door open or didn’t have cameras or key fobs in them.” He’s also developed an interesting net- work of people who know the best places to shoot and how to get into them without us- ing force or breaking and entering. “Basically, it’s just to explore,” High Vis says. “I walk by a door, and it’s open. Maybe I’ll go up to the stairs and the rooftop. I never really want to make it I’m telling peo- ple to go do this and do what I do. ... I try to just leave no trace at all. Just photos and that’s it, which sometimes is the thing that gets the buildings to see it anyway. So ei- ther way, they’re gonna know you went up there but after the fact, they couldn’t really do much.” For awhile, High Vis’ photos and videos were so widely seen that his work became the focal point of building security across the high rises in downtown Dallas. His pho- tos from the top of the Comerica Bank Tower at 1717 Main St. in 2017 earned him an audience but also a noticeable amount of no- toriety. He says it’s definitely made it more of a challenge to get into places even if his most recent shoot seemed like a cakewalk. “It was spontaneous,” High Vis says about his Comerica building shoot. “It wasn’t planned. It was just a thing and helped me get to the thing where I needed to take as many photos and angles and things because I’ll probably never get up there again. It definitely made me a better photog- rapher.” The nighttime shoot may have offered him some kind of cover but someone defi- nitely noticed him climbing around the Co- merica. High Vis and some friends inside the Mobil Oil Pegasus perched on Magnolia hotel. “I learned how to use my camera in low light or just learning how to be quick with it because security might be up there in 10 minutes,” High Vis says. “We had helicop- ters fly out. We’re on a building across from the American Airlines Center during a game and a helicopter flew in with no lights and they were shining a spotlight on me. The cops had their guns drawn and everything because they didn’t know if we were stealing things. Then they found out we’re just pho- tographers and they’re like, ‘Really? Why?’ We just wanna take photos.” Melissa Graham, the senior property man- ager for the Comerica Bank Tower, declined the opportunity to discuss High Vis’ activities. “We do not condone this behavior and are not interested in discussing the story,” Gra- ham wrote in an email reply. “Thank you.” High Vis has been detained but never ar- rested or officially charged. The worst that’s happened is getting banned from a building. That happened with Comerica building, but it only boosted his visibility and follow- ing. Thanks to the risks he’s taken, he’s ele- vated his name by working with major brands like the Dallas Mavericks and Triple D Gear to shoot rooftop photos on buildings whose managers grant him and his crew full access to roofs and high rises. He features shoe brands and accessories like Rovux Footwear and Crep Protect sneaker spray by sitting on buildings with their products dan- gling over the edge. He’s also growing Dallas’ urban photo community with DTX Street, the brand High Vis and his wife founded in 2016 to help content creators develop their art and build their name and brand through meet- ups. It grew strictly through word of mouth and hashtag campaigns. “We had people coming from out of state, multiple times from Oklahoma and New Mexico, to come to these meet-ups,” High Vis says. “High Vis, my brand, and High Vis High Vis’ view from the top of the Margaret McDermott Bridge over the Trinity River. DTX Street kind of grew together, but defi- nitely DTX Street was a huge part of being able to have my brand grow as well. I think without DTX Street, the community wouldn’t have been as big with street pho- tographers. We started to get messages like, ‘I don’t really have a camera but I have a phone. Can I come to the meet-up?’” In any case, High Vis still loves going places where others say he shouldn’t, and he’s always pushing himself to take more thrilling shots that can make the muscles in your arms and spine tense up just by looking at them. Most recently, he and RidesLon- gAndHard climbed the top of the Magnolia Building and across the neon covered scaf- folding of its famous Red Pegasus sign to get some great nighttime shots. He suffered a small shock when he grabbed part of the scaffolding that was electrified. “[High Vis] pretty much got me into this rooftopping by finding him and making me aware it was here,” RidesLongAndHard says. “I’m gonna say something I’ve never said out loud. It’s a sick thrill. I’m sitting there thinking about leaning forward but I’m in control of this moment. Just having that sense of control where I don’t have any- thing. In that moment, I’m God.” Sometimes, High Vis says he’ll go to a rooftop just to enjoy the sound or rather the lack of it. Rooftops can be solitary places where your thoughts disappear as soon as you can see the skyline from a parallel view. “It’s a very quiet place when you’re up there,” High Vis says. “I’ve gone to rooftops and not taken any photos. It was just to go up there and enjoy it. We’ve watched fire- works on rooftops some years. I feel like if some people were able to go up there and fully experience it, they’ll learn this is why I do it.” MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 MAY 5–11, 2022 DALLAS OBSERVER DALLAS OBSERVER | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | MOVIES | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | SCHUTZE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.comdallasobserver.com
