This is a re-post of a portrait series I did in August of 2013.
This week’s installment brings us to Orchard and Henry Streets. A while back, I asked for suggestions of where I should go next and this spot was the number one answer. For a variety of reasons, it’s very challenging to get people to randomly pose for portraits in some city neighborhoods. I almost gave up before the magic had a chance to happen.
It started out very slow and after being on the corner for over fifteen minutes, and asking over fifteen people, I didn’t have a single portrait. After that I gave up and got on my bike to go to an easier location. Just as I was about to pedal away, a guy comes out of nowhere, sees my camera and say’s “Yo, take a picture of your boy!” After that I stuck around for another hour and a half and was able to get all of these portraits of great people.
Just after I snapped the photos, I asked the subjects to describe themselves using only one word. Those responses are posted below their respective photographs.
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| Robert, 56 “be-bop” |
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| Ronnie, 54 “phenomenon” |
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| Lee, “over 30/under 50” “unpredictable” |
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| Cassandra, turning 42 on Tuesday “kind” |
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| Branden, 22 “cool” |
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| Taneshia, 38 “loving” |
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| Clarence, 52 “ok” |
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| Daria, 10 (sister of Tymar, below) “amazing” |
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| Tymar, 13 (brother of Daria, above) “athletic” |
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| as I was shooting Robert’s photo, Lee (left) came back for another snap. Robert is Lee’s uncle. |
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| (left to right) Alexis, Shaniqua, Sha’quan, high school students “poppin” |
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| Matthew,54 “unique” |
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| Mark “outgoing” |
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| Marvin, 13 “cool” |
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| Diamond, 19 “theatrical” |
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| Josh, 27 and son Junior, 2 “cool” |
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| Jazmin, 25 (Jazmin gave me so many great expressions, I had to include a few) “vamp-tress” (think vampire-temptress) |
Below are photos of the shoot location(s) at Orchard and Henry.
