I was a freelance editorial photographer for nearly three decades until a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis ended my commercial career. I can’t move as fast or walk as far as I used to. Sometimes I can’t move at all. But with certain modifications better suited to my less than razor-sharp new style, I’ve kept shooting.
When Covid-19 roared into New York City In March of 2020 my neighborhood West Chelsea shut down virtually overnight. Once teeming with tourists and exploding with construction and development, my streets and avenues and parks and bike paths soon became empty, barren and gray.
I’ve made countless b/w photographs showing the desolation and darkness of my neighborhood. As things changed over the months, I changed with it, widening my eye to take in the tenuous re-openings and the proliferation of outdoors-only activities. The rising cries of police brutality, the scores of angry protests. And the meaningless destruction and fear that followed in its wake.
I decided to show my photos in the very place they were made – the streets of Chelsea. I affix them onto the scaffoldings of halted construction sites and the sides of abandoned buildings. I go back the next day and make photos depicting the work I put up the night before.
I present these photographs to my neighbors, as an opportunity to consider all we’ve witnessed over these months, and to reflect upon what lies ahead for our vastly transformed neighborhood.