The city of Denver in Colorado has thousands of new residents flowing into its bustling metropolis each month, looking for opportunity, excitement and adventure. What this means for the resident's home there is change. Lots of it. And whether or not anyone believes change is necessary, or that change is a frightening fate, I took the opportunity to explore it through a photo series down and around the city's historic Colfax Avenue.

 

As I began my drive down East Colfax, at the Aurora city limit, the themes in the bland scenery remained consistent: abandoned business and run down signs. It was admittedly hard for me to imagine how some of them were still up and running today, and I felt almost as if I had traveled through time to a Denver in the 1970s.

 

The aesthetic of the signs and buildings made it almost impossible for me to not stop and capture the way they were making me feel. I began to imagine life in Denver 50 years ago. The places that looked so outdated and run-down were once “the place to be” for most people living and traveling in and out of Denver.

Although, as I continued to drive toward downtown Denver the scenes around me began to change. They suddenly went from run-down strip clubs and motels to yoga studios, local farmers markets and trendy whiskey bars. I began to realize that Colfax is still “the place to be” for Denverites — it has just grown with the times and adapted to today’s consumerism.

Yet while the two ends of this avenue are glaringly different, it is interesting to think about how much this town has changed over decades. How it is going to change over the next fifty years?