Nina. Southern Boulevard, South Bronx 2007.
Nina looking out the window of her apartment. The scars on her back are the result of third degree burns she suffered in an apartment fire when she was a child. Southern Boulevard, South Bronx 2007.
Nina sitting on her bed. Southern Boulevard, South Bronx 2007.
A school photo of Nina’s eleven year-old son on the floor of her apartment. Southern Boulevard, South Bronx 2007.
Sonya looking at a photo of her first grandchild, whom she has yet to meet because she is estranged from her daughter (the child's mother). Hunts Point, South Bronx 2008.
Babygirl with scratches she got fighting another girl while she was in prison. Hunts Point, South Bronx 2007.
Sidewalk graffiti. Hunts Point, South Bronx 2007
Smoking crack in the car on the way to visit Delilah in the hospital. East Harlem 2007.
Babygirl trying to "catch a date". Hunts Point, South Bronx 2008.
The Haunted. Hunts Point, South Bronx 2007.
Nina standing on the corner where she works. Hunts Point, South Bronx 2007.
Talking to a customer. Hunts Point, South Bronx 2007.
Getting high and watching TV. Hunts Point, South Bronx 2007.
Sonya and Babygirl. Hunts Point, South Bronx 2008.
Stacey trying to stop Sonya from fighting with Gladys. Hunts Point, South Bronx 2008.
Sonya and Gladys fighting in the apartment on Seneca Avenue. The apartment is rented by an old man named John, who sometimes let the women crash there as long as they keep the house clean and occasionally give him free sexual favors. Hunts Point, South Bronx 2008.
Sonya opening presents from Babygirl. Hunts Point, South Bronx 2008.
Saint Anthony of Padua, the patron saint of lost things, the poor and travelers. Southern Boulevard, South Bronx 2007.
Babygirl getting ready to go out to work. Hunts Point, South Bronx 2007.
Nina on the street in front of the building where she lives. Southern Boulevard, South Bronx 2007.
Hunts Point, South Bronx 2007.
Working the streets. Hunts Point, South Bronx 2007.
Waiting for customers at night in the street. Hunts Point, South Bronx 2007.
Nina in the street at night. Hunt Point, South Bronx 2007.
Nina standing in the doorway of her apartment. Southern Boulevard, South Bronx 2007.
Babygirl smoking a cigarette. Hunts Point, South Bronx 2007.
Watching live video footage from the building's security cameras. Hunts Point, South Bronx 2007.
Nina in bed watching television. Southern Boulevard, South Bronx 2007.
Nina in bed. Southern Boulevard, South Bronx 2007.
A summons Nina received for the crime of "loitering for prostitution". Southern Boulevard, South Bronx 2007.
Nina frying pork chops for dinner. Southern Boulevard, South Bronx 2007.
Porn DVDs, Sweet 'n Low and toilet paper. Hunts Point, South Bronx 2007.
Hundred dollar bills, welfare benefit card and soda. Southern Boulevard, South Bronx 2007.
Sonya getting high in an empty apartment. Hunts Point, South Bronx 2008.
A colorful plastic ball Sonya found on the street. Hunts Point, South Bronx 2008.
Sonya with a handful of cash. Hunts Point, South Bronx 2008.
Sonya's laundry hanging to dry in the bathroom. Hunts Point, South Bronx 2008.
Babygirl in bed. Hunts Point, South Bronx 2007.
Nina getting ready to go out. Southern Boulevard, South Bronx 2007.
Hunts Point, South Bronx 2007.
When I began making photographs in Hunts Point I wanted to make pictures that countered negative stereotypes and helped the viewer relate to the people in the pictures. I wanted people to see the women in the photos as the complex human beings they are and not as objects of pity or contempt.
I struggled with the project, in part because what I found in Hunts Point (at least with the women I got to know) was a tremendous amount of despair, anger and pain and not very much joy or hope. I photographed what the women showed me of their lives and I tried to do so in a way that neither dramatized nor romanticized what was happening.
It was very important to me to share the work I was doing with the women I photographed so I frequently brought prints for them. I was surprised that they often really liked the pictures and would frame them or make collages of them and put them up on the wall. Their responses to the photos made me feel that I was portraying them in a way they were comfortable with; that they felt I was showing them as they are.
- View: Text | Thumbnails | Tiana’s Profile








































