Photographer Katie Howie is telling stories about people who live and work in downtown St. Paul one frame at a time.
There's Hannah Neumann, who was once intimidated by the bustle of downtown. Now, she leans into it as a lead "captain server" at the Meritage Restaurant in the century-old Historic Hamm Building on Wabasha Street.
"The Christmas season in St. Paul is beautiful," said Neumann, quoted in Howie's new series of online photo essays about downtown St. Paul. "I get to look out of our huge glass windows and see a trail of twinkling trees all the way to Rice Park. Our old buildings are beautiful in St. Paul. Meritage is in the Hamm building which is over 100 years old. The main lobby is gorgeous."
And, Nia Rasavong had never stepped foot in downtown St. Paul before that fateful day in 2008 when she began working at Ruam Mit Thai and Lao Cuisine, the restaurant she would one day purchase, own and operate with her family.
For Matthew Plumb, a laboratory scientist with the Minnesota Department of Health, his connection to the city's core over the past seven years means he strips off his blue lab smock and latex gloves after work and heads out with his own family to the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, the Xcel Energy Center or Raspberry Island.
The three are among the 30 everyday people who figure prominently in Howie's photo series about downtown that has been quietly unfolding on social media.
When the pandemic hit, Howie almost put her portrait photography business on hold entirely.
Instead, the former retail marketer from Highland Park -- a fourth-generation St. Paulite on her mother's side -- set about creating "By a Thread," a series of photos capturing physicians, nurses, hospice workers and other essential medical staff, often still in uniform, returning from or on their way to the front lines of their profession. The self-directed project soon grew to encompass everyday St. Paul residents going about their lives, and then still more images indicative of the times, including political lawn signs following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
More recently, when St. Paul Parks and Recreation and the St. Paul Downtown Alliance went looking for someone to depict the sometimes overlooked aspects of downtown St. Paul through art work, Howie made a pitch to adapt her photo series accordingly. She would spend the summer photographing 30 downtown workers, residents and everyday visitors, from dog walkers and restaurant servers to concert-goers and state employees.
"Downtown has been a part of my life since forever," said Howie, the mother of a teenage daughter and a tween daughter. "There was a YWCA, and that's where I went to preschool. I had my wedding night at the St. Paul Hotel."
So far, she's photographed a utility cleaner at the St. Paul Union Depot, a children's librarian at the downtown George Latimer Central Library, a St. Paul police officer, visitors to a Mears Park block party and the Lowertown Sounds concert series and the director of creative services for the St. Paul Saints.
There's also been the hot dog vendor, the artistic director of the Skylark Opera Theatre, a resource counselor for the Catholic Charities Dorothy Day Place campus, a Dorothy Day resident who was previously homeless, a downtown resident who chairs the Friends of Pedro Park, a science teacher, a laboratory scientist, a restaurant owner, workers and visitors at the St. Paul Farmers' Market and the mayor of St. Paul.
"The sound bite that a lot of people are used to is 'there's nothing going on downtown.' For sure, the landscape has changed in the past 20 years," Howie said. "But there's so many people doing so many important things downtown. I'm shooting a bus driver this weekend. I'm working right now on a profile of a doctor who works at Regions Hospital. It's just a really rich tapestry of people."
Her "By a Thread: Downtown St. Paul Stories" photo essays, which are nearing the halfway mark, have found two homes on Instagram and on her website, KatieHowie.com, which include brief interviews and comments from questionnaires she distributed to her photo subjects about the highs and lows of life downtown. Howie is in talks with St. Paul Parks and Rec for a public exhibit in the near future.
Following the recent murders of state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, she added another question to her surveys, inspired by words of advice offered to the world by the Hortman's adult children after their parents' deaths.
"What could they do to make their community better? How can they have agency and impact on their community?" Howie said. "Because I believe everybody can, and so far the responses have proven that out. What that means is different for each and every person."
Mike Meyer, a dog trainer and self-proclaimed "alpha" owner of Lofty Dogs dog walking, said his good deeds include picking up doggie detritus less responsible pooch owners leave behind.
Meyer was photographed walking a dozen dogs through park space overlooking the Mississippi River.
Meyer, who said he relishes his art loft steps away from CHS Field and the St. Paul Farmers' Market, told Howie: "I wish some of the vacancies would fill; there are too many empty buildings owned by the same person/company. Regardless, I do believe the city will continue to grow and attract new businesses and tenants. People who live here love it!"