I’m Maxwell Shavers, a photographer on the Brand Storytelling team. I’ve lived in Charleston, West Virginia my entire life. I played football since I was in third grade and travelled back and forth across the state numerous times. With that being said, I’ve been to the small town of Point Pleasant in several instances. I played against their football teams a couple times, and gotten a snack while passing through to Ohio, but I’ve never intentionally made a trip to check the town out. That is until I went with my professor, David Smith, and classmate, Jeff Boggess to take pictures in early September.
From my point of view, Point Pleasant was as big as its high school and the Mothman. To me, those two things defined the city. Boy... were all of my perceptions that I had of the town shattered.
It was our job to travel down there and get footage of a car show and an antique tractor pull, as well as anything interesting going on (which really meant just take pictures and video of everything). We finally arrived in the town after the 3 hour car ride and immediately went to the car show to acquire footage.
Now, I’m not going to describe to you in detail the rundown of our schedule, but I will tell you that throughout the day I got to climb a fire truck ladder, attend a dirt bike rally, chill by the riverfront, go to the antique tractor pull, visit local stores and talk to local store owners, pet almost 30 dogs, see a 10 foot metal Mothman statue, walk through a historic state park, gaze at hundreds of feet of mural, visit a cryptid-museum, attend a class of ‘65 high school reunion, run through a splash park, watch the sunset over the Ohio River, and meet at least 50 new people.
To say that I had an action-packed day would be a massive understatement. It was one of the most memorable days of my life. When I look back a couple months ago and think of my perception of a town that I had never really experienced for myself, it makes me wonder about what other misinformed perceptions I might have for other places. That trip certainly flipped my mindset of Point Pleasant on its head, and whenever I return I find more and more to love about that place.
My name is Maxwell Shavers, and I am a photographer for the BrandJRNY brand storytelling team. Whenever I’m not at school, I’m normally in my apartment plotting my second mixtape. Yes, I said second. Follow me through our journey — @mahweyll