Six Years Walking Rockford: Hike You! Turns Photography and Haiku into a Benefit for Children's Safe Harbor

By Thomas L. Vaultonburg

There are things you can see in Rockford only if you're willing to slow down. An abandoned building revealing something of its former life. A peculiar object sitting where no peculiar object belongs. The last sunlight catching the windows of a building you've passed a thousand times without really noticing. A city has a way of hiding its mysteries in plain sight, and for more than six years, photographer Ryan Davis and I have been looking for them.

Our collaboration, Hike You!, began with a simple idea: explore Rockford on foot, photograph what we found, and pair those images with haiku. There was no shortage of material. Rockford is a city of contradictions, where natural beauty and industrial decay exist side by side, where an ordinary residential street can suddenly reveal something strange, funny, beautiful, or inexplicably moving. The longer we walked, the more we discovered. And the more we discovered, the more the city seemed to change around us.

Of course, Rockford wasn't changing nearly as much as the way we were looking at it.

A City Worth Looking At

Photography and haiku have something important in common. Both depend upon attention. A photograph asks us to look at something long enough to recognize its significance. A haiku asks us to find the few words that might allow someone else to experience that recognition. Neither requires a grand subject. In fact, some of the best material comes from things that would ordinarily escape notice altogether.

Over the years, Ryan and I have found ourselves drawn to the neglected, the peculiar, the accidental, and the fleeting. Old signs, empty buildings, unexpected wildlife, forgotten corners, curious arrangements of ordinary objects. Sometimes a photograph suggests a poem immediately. Other times, the relationship between image and words takes longer to reveal itself. The goal isn't necessarily to describe what's already visible. Ideally, the photograph and the haiku create something together that neither could accomplish alone.

The project also reflects an affection for Rockford that doesn't require pretending the city is something it isn't. Its rough edges are part of its character. So are its neighborhoods, its history, its stubbornness, and its capacity to surprise people who think they've already seen everything it has to offer.

We weren't looking for a postcard version of Rockford. We wanted the city we actually inhabit.

From the Sidewalk to ArtScene

After more than six years of walking, photographing, writing, and collecting images, Hike You! became a public exhibition during Rockford ArtScene in October 2026. For the first time, selections from our ongoing collaboration were presented together as a body of work.

The exhibition represented a milestone, but not the conclusion of the project. There are still streets to walk, places to discover, and photographs waiting for poems. The work continues, and a Hike You! book is also in development.

Now, a month after the exhibition, Ryan has made 24 works from the collection available through an online gallery, where visitors can view the photographs and haiku and purchase photographic prints. Prices begin at $30.

For those who missed ArtScene, the gallery offers another opportunity to experience the collaboration. For those who attended, it's a chance to revisit favorite pieces and bring one home.

And there's an additional reason to support the collection.

Art That Gives Back to Rockford

Ryan has announced that all profits from print sales in the Hike You! gallery will go directly to Children's Safe Harbor, a Rockford nonprofit providing supervised visitation and safe child exchanges for families experiencing difficult or potentially dangerous circumstances.

Children's Safe Harbor serves families affected by domestic violence, high-conflict custody situations, and other safety concerns. Its services provide a secure, neutral environment where children can maintain family connections while minimizing the risks associated with conflict between adults. These services are offered to eligible families free of charge.

Ryan's decision to support the organization comes from personal experience. As he explains on the gallery website, advocating for his own children helped him recognize how difficult it can be for children to have their voices heard when adults are making decisions that affect their lives, and how important meaningful safeguards can be.

It's a cause that deserves attention. Children should not have to bear the consequences of adult conflicts without protection, and organizations providing that protection are an essential part of a healthy community.

The arrangement also gives Hike You! an additional connection to the city that inspired it. The photographs were made in Rockford, the poems were written about Rockford, and profits from the artwork will help support children and families in Rockford.

That's a particularly satisfying way for a local arts project to give something back.

The Last Light

One of the works in the collection, titled Last Light, depicts three hearses parked behind a chapel, their dark forms holding the final illumination of the day. The accompanying haiku reads:

behind the chapel
three hearses
holding the last light

We shared this piece on November 2, All Souls' Day, a traditional occasion for remembering the dead. The timing seemed especially appropriate, but the photograph also illustrates what has kept the collaboration interesting for so many years. There is nothing staged or manufactured about the moment. It's something that existed in Rockford, waiting for someone to notice it.

There is beauty in such moments, although it isn't always a comfortable beauty. Sometimes it arrives with sadness, sometimes with humor, sometimes with the strange feeling that the ordinary world has briefly revealed another dimension.

That is the territory Hike You! has been exploring from the beginning.

Twenty-Four Ways of Seeing Rockford

The online collection includes works with titles such as 7th Street, Old Stars, Grin, December Fog, Wrecking Ball, Paymaster, Magic Hour, Christmas Day, Blue Hour, and Another Floor. Taken together, the 24 pieces offer glimpses of a city that can be familiar and mysterious at the same time.

One of the pleasures of the project has been discovering that a place doesn't have to be conventionally beautiful to become the subject of art. A city doesn't have to be famous, fashionable, or picturesque to reward sustained attention. Sometimes all it takes is a willingness to walk another block, turn another corner, or look at something a little longer than usual.

And perhaps that's the larger invitation behind Hike You!. You don't have to be a photographer or a poet to discover something remarkable in your surroundings. You only have to pay attention.

After six years, Ryan and I are still finding things we hadn't noticed before. I suspect we always will.

In the meantime, we're pleased that this collection can do more than celebrate the city. Through Ryan's commitment to Children's Safe Harbor, it can also make a meaningful contribution to the people who live here.

Explore the complete Hike You! gallery and purchase prints:

https://ryandavisphotography.com/hike-you

Learn more about Children's Safe Harbor:

https://childrenssafeharbor.net

Hike You! is an ongoing collaboration between Rockford photographer Ryan Davis and poet Thomas L. Vaultonburg. A book featuring selections from the project is forthcoming. All profits from print sales in the online gallery benefit Children's Safe Harbor.