Michael Wriston

@mwriston

Social landscape and street portrait photographer based in Baltimore, MD. Forever enamored by the liminal, the misunderstood, and the unconventional. www.michaelwriston.com Public record enthusiast and would-be journalist @projectsaltbox.com

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Michael Wriston@mwriston· 13d

A cartoon giraffe stands holding a skateboard, one hand raised in a wave. It wears a dark long-sleeve shirt, baggy blue pants, and brown boots, with a colorful rainbow swoosh curving around its feet. Rainbow bubble letters across the top read "THE PAST IS DEAD." Smaller text to the left reads, in quotation marks, "The World You Were Born Into No Longer Exists."

Michael Wriston@mwriston· 28d

Manhattan. New York, NY. 2026. #StreetPortrait #Photography

Michael Wriston@mwriston· Jul 12

I took my kids to the art museum and my five year old asked if he could use my phone to take a picture and this is what he wanted to photograph.

Michael Wriston@mwriston· Jul 7

Monday morning, 3 a.m.

A dark street of peak-roofed rowhouses is silhouetted against a moody sky. The darkness is pierced by the bright red and blue glow of police lights as a line of law enforcement cars are parked in the middle of the street. An officer stands in a pool of light, looking at his phone.

Michael Wriston@mwriston· Jul 4

The 4th of July. Reservoir Hill. Baltimore, MD. 2026.

A bolt of lightning strikes from storm clouds over a skyline of square and triangular rowhouse rooves in west Baltimore.

Michael Wriston@mwriston· Jun 29

i am scrolling through my inbox and questioning reality and coining new words

A mock dictionary entry styled like the Oxford English Dictionary. The headword reads "par·a·noi·A·I," followed by the pronunciation in IPA, then "noun." The etymology gives it as a blend of "paranoia" and "AI," abbreviation of "artificial intelligence," and defines it as the suspicion or belief that text encountered online was generated by artificial intelligence rather than written by a human author. Sense 1: the condition of doubting the human authorship of online text, especially when it appears generic, fluent, or formulaic. Sense 2, by extension: a general distrust of digital written content arising from the proliferation of machine-generated material. A "Compare" line points to deepfake and slop.

Michael Wriston@mwriston· Jun 29

Manhattan. New York, NY. 2026. #StreetPortrait

Two young women pose together in front of a tall stone doorway, both making playful clawing gestures with their hands toward the camera. The woman on the left has straight black hair with bangs and purses her lips; she wears a black top, a choker, layered silver necklaces, and stacked metal bracelets. The woman on the right has dark hair with magenta-streaked bangs and sticks her tongue out while smiling; she wears a pink corset-style top with black lace trim, dark nail polish, and silver bracelets. The background is a beige stone building facade with a dark recessed entrance.

Michael Wriston@mwriston· Jun 26

I don't know wtf is happening in the world anymore but I hope you all are having fun.

A screenshot of the BlueSky "Trending" pane which shows that Deltarune, Supergirl, Bible Readings, Music Challenge, and Constitution Debate are trending.

Michael Wriston@mwriston· Jun 14

Hoop. Irvington. Baltimore, MD. 2026.

A white wood-frame house with Victorian-style roofline photographed at night, lit by a nearby streetlight. A red wooden fence runs along the front of the property. An American flag hangs from the front porch at left; a basketball hoop is visible behind the fence at right. Utility poles and wires cross a deep blue-black sky.

Michael Wriston@mwriston· Jun 13

A passing storm. Reservoir Hill. Baltimore, MD. 2026.

Brick rowhouses with arched windows and peaked gables beneath a pink and purple sunset sky, with patches of blue breaking through clouds at right. Treetops fill the foreground.

Rowhouse rooftops silhouetted against a deep orange sunset sky streaked with dark clouds. The brick facades and a leafy tree sit mostly in shadow.

A row of brick houses with white-trimmed arched windows under a soft pink and lavender evening sky, a large tree in shadow at the foreground.

Michael Wriston@mwriston· Jun 12

Michael Wriston@mwriston· Jun 8

Eutaw Street. Orioles Park at Camden Yards. Baltimore, MD. 2026.

Michael Wriston@mwriston· Jun 3

Apple. Rittenhouse Square. Philadelphia, PA. 2026.

Two young people sit facing each other on a wide stone balustrade in a park. The woman on the left, with curly reddish-brown hair and glasses, sits cross-legged in a striped long-sleeve shirt and jeans, biting into an apple held in her mouth. The man on the right, with dark curly hair, wears a tan polo shirt, dark pants, and bright red socks with black sneakers; he smiles at her warmly, his hands resting near hers between them. Behind them are blossoming white azalea bushes and sunlit green trees. A phone rests on the ledge to the left, and a teal water bottle sits to the right.

Michael Wriston@mwriston· Jun 2

Spider-Man. Cedar Park. Philadelphia, PA. 2026.

A man in a homemade Spider-Man costume stands in front of a West Philadelphia storefront. He holds up a sign that reads "IT'S MARVEL TIME."

Michael Wriston@mwriston· May 30

Crapy tomatoes. Essex, MD. 2026.

Long exposure photograph of a farm stand sign, propped against a wooden electric pole and flanked by trees. The sign is washed in red light. It says “Tired of crapy tomatoes.”

Michael Wriston@mwriston· May 29

Electric. Rosedale, MD. 2026.

A yellow vintage electric car parked at night, photographed at a low front angle. The compact vehicle has an angular, wedge-shaped body with the word "electric" written along the side in a stylized script, a single round headlight set into a square housing, and an amber turn signal below it. Its front end is open, exposing a metal panel with a taped-on wiring instruction sheet, washed in red light. The front tire is visible at center. In the background, a maroon station wagon and other cars sit in a parking lot under a dark sky, with a distant streetlight glowing.

Michael Wriston@mwriston· May 24

Delighted to help. Overlea, MD. 2026.

A small storefront church photographed at night from across an empty street. The building has a purple-painted brick lower facade and a tall, peaked white gable in the center reading "Bethlehem Baptist Church" with a cross above the front door. A taller brown brick building rises behind it, and white single-story additions extend to either side. To the right stands a brightly lit billboard for Magothy Electric reading "Electrical Problems? We'd Be Delighted To Help!" with a cartoon electrician. Trees and a dark sky frame the scene, and the blurred streak of car taillights crosses the foreground.

Michael Wriston@mwriston· May 23

Etude. West Arlington. Baltimore, MD. 2026.

A vintage black and white 1950s Ford Fairlane parked on grass beside a two-story yellow clapboard house at night. The house and a leafless tree in front of it are dramatically lit, glowing warm against a dark blue sky. Lush green grass fills the foreground, with trees and a chain-link fence in the background.

Michael Wriston@mwriston· May 21

Coppin' Jesus. Winston-Govans. Baltimore, MD. 2026.

A white two-story house converted into a small Apostolic church, photographed at night. The building has a cross mounted at the peak of the gabled roof, yellow trim accents, a covered front porch with white railings, and a blue-painted door. A sign above the porch reads "Scriptually Sound." In the front yard, a yard sign reads: "What You Should Be Coppin is.. JESUS For Real!" A large tree stands to the left. The sky has a warm purple-gray glow from city light pollution.

Michael Wriston@mwriston· May 19

Strange that some Substack activist groups seem to be relying on bought likes & coordinated restacks to astroturf their content. Organic growth apparently not being their strong suit. Nearly all of these accounts in the “like” list subscribe to the same 64 newsletters, & have the same user bio.

Michael Wriston@mwriston· May 18

I have fielded so many phone calls and emails about this Washington County NDA and I am happy to squash it. I’m also hoping this stops the baseless, tasteless accusations and insults certain members of this movement have made against me for keeping a skeptical mind. Now back to work.