SMUG DREAM visualizes Rochester, NY’s downtown, post-Kodak (after its 2012 bankruptcy filing) and before the pandemic induced shut-down of 2020. The title references Rochester's former nickname and the title of a 1957 book, Smugtown U.S.A. that satirized Rochester's 200 millionaires and the perks of being a "Kodak Man." SMUG DREAM uses Rochester's former Inner Loop (a stretch of highway that separated downtown from its surrounding neighborhoods both physically and economically) as a perimeter to show a more lucid visual reality of this diverse city, calling from the past and adding to the current discussions about the future of Rochester's inner city life.

Daniel Paul Witkowski  is a photographer and author based in Rochester, New York, and graduated from the photojournalism program at RIT's School of Photographic Arts and Sciences in 2015. He self-published the book SMUG DREAM in 2020, which is still available on his website. 

View the gallery talk from Friday, March 3 with John Aasp, Melissa Warp and Daniel Witkowski here (courtesy Josh Meltzer.)