Colerain Township native and renowned photographer arrested at NYC gallery exhibition
Colerain Township native and daredevil photographer Isaac Wright was arrested May 15 at the end of his first solo gallery exhibition in New York City, his lawyer said.
Wright, known as Drift online, was escorted out of the Robert Mann Gallery in Chelsea just after 8 p.m., when his show was scheduled to end.
His lawyer, Priya Chaudhry, told The Enquirer that Wright is charged with misdemeanor criminal trespassing. The Enquirer has requested more information about the arrest, but photos from Wright's climb up the spire of the Empire State Building were displayed at the exhibition.
Chaudhry said the opening for the exhibition, called "Coming Home," was packed shoulder to shoulder, but several people noticed a woman who arrived at the beginning and stayed the whole time.
Just after 8 p.m., the woman tapped him on the shoulder and informed him that he was under arrest, Chaudhry said, then several uniformed officers came in.
Wright can be seen on cellphone video being escorted out of the building wearing a tuxedo and black bow tie.
Chaudhry said at the police precinct, Wright was released with no bond, which is called a desk appearance ticket in New York. She said he's scheduled to be back in court on June 4.
Wright, who graduated from Colerain High School and went on to serve in the U.S. Army, was arrested on charges in Cincinnati as well. After he made photographs from the top of Great American Tower at Queen City Square without permission, he became the subject of a nationwide manhunt.
It was a sheriff's department in Arizona that arrested him. Deputies swarmed on his car with rifles drawn, helicopter hovering above. But it's not even clear if they knew why he was wanted.
Back in Cincinnati, prosecutors said "stealth and deception" were Wright's trademarks as they attempted to hold him in jail on a $400,000 bond.
Nearly a year after his arrest, Wright was sentenced to treatment in lieu of conviction. But during that time, Wright went from an artist with a decent Instagram following to one of the top-selling photographers in the world.
He took some of the profits from those sales and donated $500,000 to The Bail Project to be used in Hamilton County to post bonds for non-violent offenders who cannot afford it.
During another trip home, he was invited by the CEO of Fifth Third Bank to live stream his artistic process from the top of their building on Fountain Square.
Chaudhry said it seems like the officers who arrested Wright seem to have been touched by his art. She said the officers were kind and very respectful during the May 15 arrest.
"This all began because the cops couldn't understand him," Chaudhry said. "They saw him as a weapon. These officers saw him as an artist and a person."
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Daredevil photographer Isaac Wright arrested at NYC gallery exhibition
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