Duane Howard Butts, a photographer and performance artist who loved his Fells Point neighborhood, died Saturday at Johns Hopkins Hospital of complications from cirrhosis. He was 40.
Mr. Butts grew up in the Glen Oaks neighborhood of North Baltimore and graduated with honors from Boys' Latin School in 1980. He attended the University of California at Berkeley for a year and transferred to what is now Towson University, where he studied film.
He worked as a waiter at several restaurants in Fells Point and Little Italy and was a free-lance photographer.
Mr. Butts loved Baltimore but especially Fells Point, said Gayle Maxwell, his art director. She met Mr. Butts while he was a student at Boys' Latin.
He had lived in several city neighborhoods, but was most at home in Fells Point.
Mr. Butts felt it was "a place where you can live anonymously or you can live out loud," Mrs. Maxwell said. "It's easy to be yourself down there."
For Mr. Butts, a tall man who often wore unusual hats, being himself resulted in a number of mischievous performance art pieces.
"He would just look at life and wonder how he could bring joy to other people," Mrs. Maxwell said. "He wanted for people not to take themselves as seriously."
One December night in 1994, he darted around a one-block area of Fells Point, clad only in Christmas lights. Mrs. Maxwell said the lights were powered by an extremely long extension cord.
Mr. Butts was also an avid fan of the Baltimore Orioles and the University of Maryland Terrapins.
To celebrate the Terps' NCAA win in April, he constructed a "float" - a wagon carrying Burt, his box turtle. He then enlisted Mrs. Maxwell to pull it through the streets while Mr. Butts photographed reactions and interactions with the turtle.
He showed his images in unconventional venues such as restaurants or bars, Mrs. Maxwell said. He last exhibited his work in 2000, a one-man show of his Baltimore photographs. Before his death, he and Mrs. Maxwell were assembling another exhibit of Baltimore images for next spring. Mrs. Maxwell said she will try to time the show for what would have been Mr. Butts' 41st birthday, April 23.
He also enjoyed poetry and had notebooks filled with his writing.
A memorial evening is planned for 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. Thursday at 1919, a Fells Point bar at 1919 Fleet St.
Mr. Butts is survived by a brother, Michael Butts of Crofton; three sisters, Barbara "Bobbie" Smith and Deborah Butts, both of Baltimore, and Carole Henning of Overlea; and numerous nieces and nephews.