The funny part is, I knew Jason Lee before I knew Earl Hickey.
Most people hear his name and go straight to *My Name Is Earl*, *Mallrats*, *Chasing Amy*, *Almost Famous*, *Alvin and the Chipmunks*, or Syndrome from *The Incredibles*. Fair enough. That is a pretty strange and solid résumé.
But before all that, Jason Lee was one of the biggest names in professional skateboarding. In 1992, he co-founded Stereo Skateboards with Chris Pastras, and if you were around skate shops back then, Stereo had a real pull to it. I owned one of those early Stereo boards years ago, so I’ve followed Lee’s work for a long time, just from a few different angles.
Now he’s in Tulsa with a photography book about Oklahoma, and that is not a sentence I expected to write this week.
Oklahoma, in black and white
Lee’s new book, *OK/BW: Oklahoma Black-and-White*, collects photographs from his Oklahoma work connected to Philbrook Museum of Art. The project goes back to 2018, when Lee photographed around the state on film, using 35mm, 120, and 4×5 formats.
The book itself is a hardback collection of 75 black-and-white images, and the subject matter is what caught me.
This is not the glossy postcard version of Oklahoma. From what Lee has shared, the work leans into small towns, roadside buildings, old signs, quiet streets, historic structures, and the kind of everyday scenes a lot of people drive past without really looking. That is the Oklahoma I spend a lot of time chasing for Okie Almanac.
There is something about seeing those places in black and white that makes them feel less like background and more like evidence. A tired building, a snowy house, a roadside scene, a small-town street, they all get a little more room to breathe when the color is stripped away.
That is probably why the book landed with me so quickly. Oklahoma has plenty of obvious places to photograph, but the better stories are often sitting on the edge of a highway, or in a town square where half the buildings have outlived three different versions of the same dream.
The Tulsa stop, and the OKC question
Jason Lee came to Tulsa for an *OK/BW* event through Magic City Books, in the Tulsa Arts District, with the book tied back to Philbrook’s original Oklahoma photography project.
When I saw his Instagram post about being in Tulsa, I did what any reasonable Oklahoma City person would do. I asked if he was also coming to OKC.
He actually replied.
The answer was no, at least for this trip. Tulsa only.
Not the answer I wanted, but still. When someone you’ve followed since skateboard days takes a second to respond, that will improve an afternoon pretty fast.
It also made the whole thing feel oddly full-circle. I first knew Jason Lee through skateboarding, then watched him become one of those actors who seemed to pop up in everything, and now here he is making a serious photography book about Oklahoma places I care about.
That is a good little Oklahoma plot twist.
Why this one is worth paying attention to
What I like about *OK/BW* is that it does not treat Oklahoma like a novelty. It also does not seem interested in turning the state into a slogan.
The photographs give attention to places that usually do not get much of it. Old buildings. Town edges. Roadside Americana. Architecture with some wear on it. Landscapes that feel familiar without being obvious.
That matters because Oklahoma is easy to flatten from the outside. Tornadoes, oil, Route 66, football, red dirt, done. Lee’s photos, at least the ones I’ve seen, slow that down. They look at the in-between parts.
And honestly, that is where a lot of the state lives.
If you like photography, Oklahoma history, roadside architecture, old downtowns, or just seeing this place through someone else’s eyes, *OK/BW* is worth checking out. Even if you missed the Tulsa event, the book is available through Jason Lee’s official shop, and his Instagram has been a good place to follow the Oklahoma images as he shares them.
I’m still hoping he makes it to Oklahoma City later.
For now, Tulsa got the stop. I’ll try not to be too jealous about it, but no promises.
Details
- Event: An Evening With Jason Lee / *OK/BW: Oklahoma Black-and-White*
- Venue: Magic City Books
- Address: 221 E Archer St, Tulsa, OK 74103
- Phone: 918-602-4452
- Hours: Thursday, July 30, 2026, 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM
- Website: https://www.jasonleefilm.com/shop/okbw
