March 30, 2015

While taking some street photos in downtown Asheville, I ran across—well, how else can I put it? Spider-man! I had first seen the Marvel comic hero crossing College Street amidst a crowd of people. I wanted a candid shot of the unfolding scene, but he saw me aim my camera at him (he obviously had a Spidey sense of the situation). Busted, he approached me as I grabbed a quick shot of him with my film camera that I had at the moment (incidentally, it will be a little time before I get that roll developed). After taking the shot, he mentioned that if I wanted to get some more photographs of him, that he would be on the ledge of the BB&T building just across the street. I said that I may just show up there with my digital camera if he’s still in the area.

Spider-man on ledge of BB&T Building

A short time later I did retrieve my other camera and headed back to where I last encountered the wall-crawler. Off in the distance on the ledge of the BB&T building I noticed he was casting webs onto the passing pedestrians below. I soon realized that because he was so far up, that the 35mm lens that I had would not be long enough to capture anything but a wide scene, with just a hint of “Spidey” poking his head over the building’s ledge.

Spider-man above College Street

Well, if the mountain will not come to Mohammed (or in this case, a passable Peter Parker)…

I went around the front of the BB&T building to the level Spider-man was located, but found it somewhat prohibitive without having to crawl on the brick ledge to get in close. Our friendly neighborhood arachnid realized my vain endeavor to get in close and crawled towards me in an attempt to allow for some more intimate photos. I remarked that he didn’t have to put his life at risk just so I could get a few photographs.

Well, he was more that happy to have me capture a few moments of his time. After a number of shots of the web-slinger with the city skyline framing his masked head, he asked if I would send him a few copies via his Instagram account (peter@spideyofasheville). I assured him that I would. He eventually got off the ledge and onto more solid terrain. I showed him some of the shots on the camera screen. He said that he couldn’t really see them very well and promptly removed his mask to get a better look. I responded, “If you can’t see through that mask, how the heck are you doing this?!” He laughed. He removed his mask to reveal not just his face, but how young he was—straight out of high school!

A few more words were exchanged, and I went on my way.

I added that I would keep his identity a secret. I mean, what else would you expect from Peter Parker?

Spider-man at night

All images © Joe Longobardi. All Rights Reserved.
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