Photographer Briana Woods captures quiet moments in our City of Oaks in unexpected spots, like parking garages and empty streets.
by Ayn-Monique Klahre | photography by Briana Woods

A little over three years ago, photographer Briana Woods started capturing images of Raleigh’s urban landscape. “I live pretty close to downtown, so often I’ll just go for a walk without a plan beyond, the weather looks nice or it might be interesting to take photos, and just wander around,” says Woods. Those photos have turned into a passion project and a body of work that turns sidewalks, streetlamps, loading docks and other unnoticed spaces into beautiful and mysterious scenes.    

Woods has lived in the Triangle since she was 3, and she and her husband moved to Raleigh’s College Park neighborhood in 2022. A University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate and marketing professional by trade, Woods does freelance photography on the side, usually concentrating on portraits.

Taking these ground-up photos is a practice she first honed in the years after graduation. She spent a few years teaching English in Seoul, South Korea, but “after a year and a half, I was feeling homesick and unhappy,” she says. So she grabbed her camera. “I found that going out and walking around the city with the intent of photographing helped me appreciate the area more,” Woods says. “It helped me see the beauty.” Woods is attracted to simple spaces — planes of buildings, telephone lines, parking decks — or areas that folks don’t usually see. “I like exploring places that aren’t necessarily for public consumption,” she says.

“Often there will be less ornamentation, and a utilitarian quality to the space. Plus, I think I’m attracted to industrial elements because they’re not something I have a lot of exposure to.” One favorite spot is a parking garage off W. Lane Street that has interesting Brutalist architecture. “I aim for minimalist images, and that’s a lot easier when you’re looking at architecture with less detail and wider spaces between elements,” Woods says. “The light and shadows can feel smoother.” Her images often capture how lines and shadows intersect or contrast, or find colors repeating through a composition.

Another frequent location is the former Circus Family Restaurant on Wake Forest Road. It’s on her way to the grocery store, so she’ll often stop there and look around, intrigued by its bright colors and how the space evolves. “Every time, there’s new destruction to photograph,” she says. “It’s sort of sad, but also beautiful.”

Sometimes, what attracts Woods to an image is the idea of creating a story. In one image, for example, the nose of a yellow car pokes into the frame in front of a shadowed brick building. “I love that little bit of yellow, and how it suggests that something is happening outside the frame,” she says. In others, a single window glows in a darkened building, or a worker can be seen, absorbed in their craft, from the outside. Sometimes she’ll crop an image to make it feel more minimalist or enhance one color or another to play up the contrast.

And often, Woods will find herself photographing an image due to the angle of the sun. “I’m attracted to both shapes and the shadows they cast, I love how they play together,” she says. Her favorite times to photograph Raleigh are early in the morning or late in the afternoon. “That’s when I find my flattering or interesting directional light,” she says.

Now that she’s been doing it for a while, “I know what I’m interested in, and I know I like to get out and walk. I don’t really have a plan, but I do have a process,” she says. Taking these photos tunes her into the rhythms of Raleigh and the ways the city is changing, says Woods: “I’m fairly observant anyway, I pay attention to things — but I’m more aware when I have my camera.” 

A peek inside the window at Virgil’s Cocktails & Cocina in the early morning (left). A van parked along S. McDowell Street (right). “I already liked the lights in the buildings, but when this little van pulled up, it was especially charming,” photographer Briana Woods says. 

Outside of the former Circus Family Restaurant (left). A Spanish Revival lamppost on the North Carolina State Fairgrounds (right).

The former Circus Family Restaurant (left). Stoplights outside of the former bank and mortuary that now houses Death & Taxes on W. Hargett Street (right)

Two shots from parking decks around town

“I love how the light is coming in from the side — it suggests that something otherworldly might be happening just out of frame,” she says (left). The Ugly Monkey Party Bar (right). “I’ve not been, but I like the shadow and the light on the building, and the contrast with the sky. I edited it quite a bit to bring out the colors I wanted,” she says.

This yellow house is in the Oakwood neighborhood (right). “Victorian architecture is so pretty, but it usually doesn’t mesh with my style of photography. But I like how this simpler house looks like a pyramid,” she says. A setting sun lights up a porta-potty in front of the Wake County Courthouse. “The way the sun was highlighting it, it was like it was on a stage,” she says.

This article originally appeared in the January 2025 issue of WALTER magazine.