Here in Red Hook

Book Released

2011-11-22T19:14:00.004-05:00

I'm very proud to release my first book: Here in Red Hook. I owe great thanks to readers of this blog for encouragement along the way. Creating the book was a long and satisfying process, and I'm very pleased with how it came out. It was printed in Iceland in a limited edition of 500. You can order a signed and hand-numbered copy here: www.andyvernonjones.com

2011-08-15T13:30:00.011-04:00

I officially ended the blog nine months ago, and now it's giving birth to something new! I'm editing and publishing a beautiful book of the photographs I took in Red Hook over the years I lived and worked there. You're invited to check out the video I made about it for kickstarter by cliking above. The fundraising campaign is over, so please contact me if you'd like to pre-order a signed copy. Thanks for all the support over the years.

2010-11-04T16:51:00.003-04:00

This is my final post. Goodbye Red Hook.
Raheem- who they call Petey- the most photogenic man I know in Red Hook. He appears in posts from 4/2/09, 1/16/09 and 9/19/08.Angela, who I met as she was on her way home from work last Friday.
Isabel, one of my old roommates, as we were moving out last Saturday.
The Brooklyn Queens Expressway. It's the northeast border of Red Hook and cuts the neighborhood off from the rest of Brooklyn. This negative got damaged on the bottom but I think it's beautiful.
V and Al. I met them while they were working on Al's car. When I told them about my project they were surprised that I'd had any luck getting anyone to pose for my photographs, as if Red Hook was too tough a neighborhood to trust a photographer. But then they were excited to pose for a picture themselves.
Two of the school buses that clog up the southern blocks of Red Hook, but sit here, like sentries, on a rainy morning last week.

2010-10-30T23:11:00.004-04:00

Happy Halloween Brooklyn. I took this early on a gray morning this week, and it seemed nice and spooky for the holiday. I moved most of my stuff out of my place in Red Hook today, so tonight will be my last night as a Red Hook resident and tomorrow will be the last post on Here in Red Hook.

2010-10-29T22:23:00.003-04:00

I've known this young man for a few years, and have photographed him before. When I saw him the other day with the painful-looking but beautiful bruises on his face, I ran up to my apartment to get my camera. By the time I returned he was surrounded by friends, relaxing. His friends were protective, but he said he was happy to be photographed and chose to keep smoking for the picture. I hesitated to post this, because the beat-up face and blunt in his mouth are so symbolic of many misconceptions and real concerns about young men of color in poor urban neighborhoods. But doesn't he have a hopeful and dignified glint in his eye?

2010-10-28T17:22:00.010-04:00

For our new picture of the day, we go inside the walls of South Brooklyn Community High School. This is James Perez, who is a minor celebrity in the world of New York inline skating. He's a really good guy. I've been his advocate counselor for more than two years. He only has a few more classes to pass to graduate and he and I both know he's going to do that this year. Click here to seem him skating.

PRINT GIVEAWAY

The Prints Have Been Requested- thank you everyone.

Today I am giving away two pairs of prints of Here in Red Hook photographs. They are signed archival inkjet prints on heavyweight matte photo paper; each is approximately 8"x 8". If you'd like to own one of these pairs of prints, please send me an email with your name, mailing address, and which pair is your first choice. We'll call the top the "red pair" and the bottom the "blue pair." The first two people to email me will get the photographs. Send email to avernonjones@gmail.com.

2010-10-27T16:45:00.003-04:00

4 Days Left.

I think if I ever display my whole body of Red Hook work in a gallery, I'll make a big map of the neighborhood and plot the location of every photograph in the show. Until that day comes, enjoy this sample mapped location for the photo above:

.
View Larger Map

2010-10-26T20:27:00.013-04:00

Last night I couldn't sleep and was reading Nueva Luz photo journal. I got really into the work of photographer Jane Tam. This morning I looked at her blog and saw that she had done a print giveaway, which seemed like a nice idea. So before the week is out I'll be giving away a print of one of my photographs to a reader (viewer) of Here in Red Hook. Check back often if you'd like to be the one to get it.

When I was photographing scaffolding last week this girl walked by with her grandmother and was curious about what I was doing peering down into the ground glass of my Hasselblad viewfinder. She was happy to pose for a portrait, but her grandmother was camera shy.

2010-10-25T21:30:00.006-04:00

I had lots of trouble deciding what to post today, but settled on these two reminders of the natural world. Whenever I walk along the path in the top image, which is usually several times per week, I'm reminded of the eternal ebb and flow of the tides, and of the oceans that cover most of our globe's surface. It's nice to get a reminder of what's beyond when you live in NYC, which can feel like the gravitational center of everything.

I took the second picture on October 12, the morning after hail the size of large marbles fell in Red Hook. During the storm I was lucky enough to be inside, but the assault of ice was a reminder of how vulnerable we are to nature, especially as our climate changes. The hail had knocked about half of the leaves off of all the trees in the neighborhood, and they carpeted the sidewalks like some kind of harvest.

2010-10-25T21:04:00.001-04:00

This is Pat, who owns a house across the street from where I work.

2010-10-24T21:59:00.005-04:00

One more week to go.

This is Cynthia who lives less than a block from me, but whom I met for the first time last week. I love her tattoos, her sparkling eyes, and the exquisite wrinkles of her t-shirt.

(Click the photo to see more detail.)

2010-10-23T21:21:00.004-04:00

8 days left.

These are mostly about shape and color. But I'm also wondering what the heck that scaffolding could be for; it doesn't seem close enough to the buildings to have any use. The second picture is of the little pebbly beach in the park at the end of Coffey Street, where many bits of colorful junk have washed ashore.

2010-10-22T22:08:00.002-04:00

This is Ari with his dog Taco. Ari's headphones match Taco's leash. I met them walking by the water after school on Wednesday.

2010-10-21T22:36:00.003-04:00

I photographed this woman in 2008, on second day that I was trying out the Hasselblad camera, which I later bought. I didn't yet have the focusing down, but I was already in love with the thing, and how the neighborhood looked through its lens. She was sitting in Coffey Park, a stone's throw from where I live, and agreed to be photographed without pausing her cell phone conversation. I love her pink sweatshirt in the late afternoon light.

(Yesterday I dropped off five rolls of film to be developed and scanned, so by tomorrow I should have some new recent pictures to show.)

2010-10-20T22:50:00.002-04:00

Elia Kazan's 1954 film On the Waterfront was based on the world of Red Hook longshoremen. I just read that originally the film was going to be written by Arthur Miller and called The Hook, but the House Un-American Activities Commission pressured the studio to change Miller's script. Miller refused and dropped the project. With the new writer, Budd Schulberg, the title was changed.

As I get ready to move, I know the proximity the the water is one of the things I'll miss most, hence my posting another picture of fishing and the piers. In the foreground is my old friend Elijah Miller. Elijah is a songwriter who works at B61, a bar on Red Hook's northern border with Carroll Gardens. In the background, that faint point on the horizon is the Statue of Liberty.

2010-10-19T23:46:00.003-04:00

An ode to American food.

I shot these on the same day, two winters ago. They didn't excite me when I developed the film at the time, but they've grown on me so I'm sharing them now.

2010-10-18T17:11:00.016-04:00

12 more days of new posts to Here in Red Hook. Enjoy this one:

I absolutely love the waterfront in Red Hook. And I love talking to guys (and once in a while gals) fishing out on the piers. But I wouldn't eat the fish they catch – straight out of Upper New York Bay. I guess that's what this picture is about.

2010-10-17T22:44:00.013-04:00

Today I start the countdown to the end of Here in Red Hook. In exactly two weeks I will move to an apartment about a mile from where I live now, outside of the borders of the neighborhood I love. I'll still be working in Red Hook, but have decided to end this project while I'm really still Here in Red Hook. For the next 14 days I plan to post a new image at least once a day, and on October 31 I will post my last post.

It's been so rare that I've photographed any male-female pairs in Red Hook, and I think that's too bad, because couples are great. I met these two young people one afternoon when I was out shooting with the photography class that I co-teach at SBCHS. I learned their names, but didn't write them down, and have now forgotten. The white, orange and black grocery bag tells me that they'd bought their snacks at Fairway. I love that detail because I don't think I've ever seen any teenagers from the neighborhood shopping in there. (Fairway is a gourmet grocery store on the waterfront in Red Hook).

2010-10-04T23:06:00.007-04:00

A storm two weeks ago took down this tree up the street from me, along with over 1000 others in NYC. During the storm I was almost struck by lightning on my roof-- but I wasn't-- so I was able to photograph this scene the next day. (As usual, the photo's better bigger, so click on it.)

This particular stretch of Henry Street gets referred to as "Puerto Rico Block", but a young woman I know who lives there finds the name somewhat offensive, so we won't call it that.

2010-09-23T19:41:00.008-04:00

It was swings and a mask on this August day after a rain storm in Coffey Park. I was glad I had b&w film in my camera because I think it makes the mask something more mysterious and the swing more timeless. Some of their friends were more cautious about being photographed by a stranger, but these two insisted on getting their moment in front of the camera and I appreciate that they did. (Tip of the hat to Ralph Eugene Meatyard- a photographer with a great name, who used masks in some of his photos of his family in the rural south 40 years ago.)

2010-09-06T23:39:00.003-04:00

This is Jermaine. I met him about a month ago, and recently I think he's started keeping his motorcycle in the overgrown lot next to my building. In the past I've met guys who have wanted their bikes photographed but didn't want to be in the pictures themselves. But I think Jermaine knew that he was at least as good looking as his motorcycle.

2010-08-14T00:39:00.004-04:00

This is Julio and Kerry- they're the same two boys who are filling the bucket from the fire hydrant in the last post- but this picture was actually taken first. I met them on a sweaty evening when the light in Red Hook was just glowing. They wanted me to take action shots, which (understandably) always seems to be the case with skateboarders I meet, but they settled for a portrait.

2010-08-09T12:49:00.004-04:00

Here are two views of the fire hydrant on Delevan Street that was open for more than a week in mid-July. First children were cooling off in it. Then people were driving their cars through the spray for a little rinse. Then the children got soap and buckets and set up a little car washing business. They told me they were raising money to build a skateboard park.

2010-07-09T11:01:00.003-04:00

On Columbia Street, just south of Lorraine, is this metal workshop. I've chatted with William, on the right, and photographed him more than once, but I've never learned exactly what they do. I plan to.

2010-06-28T23:23:00.004-04:00

This one you really have to see big- so click on the photo. Big dump trucks were crisscrossing this mountain of salt or gravel (in the north of Red Hook) against the backdrop of downtown Manhattan. I'd seen this of salt before, but thought it was a minor pile until the day the trucks were there and looked tiny on top of it. The only way to get the shot was to pull down the plastic covering this chain link fence and shoot through it... and I only had my little old Olympus camera loaded with long expired Kodak film. The result is a mostly obscured photo with an extra graininess and a strange hue, but I kind of love it.

2010-06-22T15:52:00.003-04:00

This is my bulletin board in my office at the school where I work (in Red Hook)- showing portraits I've take of some of my students- all of them brave and beautiful people. I approach these pictures differently than the rest of my art. They are a component of the community building and youth development work I do at the school. But I'm proud of the pictures, just as I'm proud of the young people in them, and they are Red Hook, so I thought I'd show them here.

2010-06-02T00:00:00.012-04:00

When I was out shooting a few weeks ago, these guys were playing ball- pitching from one side of Verona Street across to the other. The buildings on two sides of an industrial Brooklyn block present the perfect backstop and outfield wall (actually more like an infield wall) for a two man ball game. The ball they were playing with was a heavy rubber. Not a hardball- but I still wouldn't have wanted to pitch to this kid at close distance without wearing a glove to protect me from a line drive smacked right back at me. To be photographed these guys fell naturally into poses reminiscent of those on baseball cards or major league ballpark programs. They seem somewhere between men- with the actual swagger of a pro ball player, and boys- with innocent dreams of one day playing in the big leagues.

2010-05-09T20:20:00.001-04:00

This strip of sidewalk runs between West 9th Street and Mill Street, past the Police Athletic League building. I've been fascinated by it because it's almost always fenced off by a tall wrought iron gate, chained shut. (I had to stick my camera through it to get this picture.) Maybe it's blocked off to prevent people from from taking these barricades, which are collected there- themselves blocking nothing.

2010-04-07T20:06:00.000-04:00

This is Matthew who I met this afternoon, finishing up a roll of film on my way to the lab. He said he comes to Red Hook to serve on the Youth Court but lives in Staten Island. I liked that he was wearing a red t-shirt and carrying another one, and I think he has a wonderful face. (Click on the image to see him a little closer up.)

2010-03-31T15:02:00.000-04:00

My mother was just visiting from Massachusetts and complaining that they hadn't gotten any snow up there this winter. That made me recall that we had, so I went back into my winter images. The photo lab I've been using recently, Accurate Photo, is a real mom and pop place in Park Slope, owned and run by a Chinese family. When she was scanning these negatives, the mother in the family was excited about this photo, saying she liked the even composition. I guess I agree. This is Center Street, running through the Red Hook West Houses. (Blogger limits the height of your pictures, so these 35mm verticals show up really small. Click on the image to see it bigger.)

2010-02-06T13:37:00.000-05:00

Back in August I was watching some softball at the fields on Lorraine Street and these two boys were playing at the playground across the road. Of course the difference in size between the two of them caught my eye. It was a beautiful day, but nobody else was around in the whole section of courtyard outside these buildings. These guys were very intent on their games, but seemed happy to stop and pose for a picture.

2009-12-29T00:14:00.001-05:00

A couple of months ago I was out shooting on Visitation Street, and the girl in the middle here called me over to take a photo. The guys were a little reluctant at first, but when we all got a closer look at each other it seemed like a group photo would be a good idea and so we made this one. They were hanging out right next to the Community Justice Center so it's a little ironic that they're throwing up signs.

2009-12-06T22:18:00.000-05:00

A snake-like hose. A sinking green cone. A plywood bridge over a driveway stream. A right-angled street light that doesn't reach the ground. I just found something (or everything) unexpected and un-New York City about this humble lot on Van Brunt Street. (as always, the photos look better bigger. and you can see them that way if you click on them.)

2009-09-27T18:38:00.000-04:00

(You can see it bigger if you click on it.) Every photo I've posted on this blog for the past year has been taken on medium format film with my Hasselblad camera. But a month ago I got an Olympus XA, an old Japanese rangefinder that fits in my pocket. This picture and the next one are taken with it. It doesn't capture quite as much detail as the Hasselblad, but I can keep it with me and pull it out when something in the neighborhood catches my eye... like this caution tape on Mill Street.

2009-09-27T18:30:00.000-04:00

I was watching some boys play baseball on Verona Street and someone hit it over the church yard fence. While the pitcher went after it, this guy showed off how he could climb those wires on the right (which was impressive but the landing on the jump down interested me more photographically).

2009-08-06T17:42:00.000-04:00

(please click on this image to see it bigger) I love the people and streets and strange old buildings of this neighborhood, but after a couple of years photographing those things, I loved shooting some wildflowers in Red Hook. Down on Van Brunt Street, past the shipping terminal there is this little lot. The sign on the fence says it's some sort of public protected meadow. One summer evening the gate was open and I stepped in and made this picture.

2009-05-29T19:17:00.000-04:00

I see this man very often, never in the same place. I've only talked to him this once, interrupting him from his cleaning because the light on him was so beautiful. He was very willing to be photographed, though skeptical. I love that he didn't completely stop wiping his windshield as he turned to me for the picture.

2009-04-29T16:22:00.000-04:00

This photograph is from the part of the neighborhood where the buildings have forklifts coming in and out of them and where trucks are being loaded and unloaded. I don't know if these boxes are made there, of if they're used for packaging other things made there or for packaging things made somewhere else. I didn't ask. I just liked the stacks of flat boxes and the men moving them around and shooting the breeze.

2009-04-02T00:24:00.001-04:00

A year after I first met and photographed them, I spent part of an afternoon with the Red Hook born and raised brothers Raquan (foreground) and Raheem. The first picture I took of them was in an exhibit called "The Changing Faces of Brooklyn." And if you look back at how they looked a year ago it's clear that they really have changed.

They were really excited about how the photos from last year looked, but I think seeing them made the guys even more aware of how they'd look in these shots, and these are guys who care about looking good (don't we all), so there was an extra layer of cool as I shot this time.

Their friends Jason (black hat) and Jose (red hat) ran into us, saw the prints and wanted to be in some photos too. Here the brothers are looking at some of the prints I gave them. Jason, a middle school student, was especially striking looking in his green colored contacts- which seem to be gaining popularity with some of the Latino teens I know. A troubling pursuit of the bluest eye or just a playful fashion statement?

2009-03-16T23:18:00.001-04:00

(Please click on these pictures so you can see them a little bigger!) For the first time in several years NYC had a snow day where schools were closed, so I got to shoot for a couple hours in the middle of the day. The woman with the box (actually a drawer from an old dresser) was using it to shake salt out onto the sidewalk. She and I talked about how she had extra work to do on a day when lots of us got to stay home. That run down house, which I've been into for a while, is now pretty overshadowed by that great street art. And the father and son were sledding in Coffey Park, which has no hills. (Is it still called sledding if your dad just pulls you around on the sled?)

2009-03-02T17:44:00.000-05:00

Yaritza was a student at the school where I work-- I was her advocate counselor until January when she passed her last NY state regents exam and graduated! I took this in front of the school during the students' lunch break one day last year. Yaritza is a small person, but there's some serious power in how she carries herself and I think some of that is communicated in this portrait. Also, I love how the white "Brooklyn" on her jacket is echoed by the white grafiti on the fence behind her. Teens from Red Hook like to wear red. It's a touchy subject to mention because the Bloods gang (whose color is red) is the prevelent gang in the neighborhood. But my impression is that it's both deeper and simpler than any gang connection. They're from Red Hook, so they like red.

Michael (another guy)

2009-02-21T17:09:00.001-05:00

(Click on the picture above for a bigger version so you can really see this guy.) I met Michael one morning when we were both on our way to school- him to MS 378 where he's a student and me to South Brooklyn Community High School where I'm an advocate counselor. Later that week I saw him again when he came to use the gym at my school with an after-school program he attends.

The past seven portraits I've posted have been of guys. Overall I've photographed many more men than women for this project. I have a few thoughts about why. First, the neighborhood is filled with garages, workshops and factories so the economy (and sexism) bring more men into the neighborhood to work, and often to work in outdoor or open spaces. Women in our society, statistically, do more hours of work than men but in the city a lot of that work is inside childcare, and household work. So my guess is women in Red Hook are busy that way while men are outside (where I meet them) working, or relaxing and socializing. Likewise boys usually get more encouragement to play outside than girls.

Another factor is that even when I do see and take interest in a woman as the subject for a photograph, she often declines my request to be in a picture. This may be because our culture particularly targets women around physical appearance and gives constant messages about how women should and shouldn't look. Given these factors, it's not surprising that a woman might say no to a stranger asking to take her picture. And when that stranger is me, personally, I'm sure that there are ways that (as a man) I still have a lot to learn about how to approach and engage women as respectfully and skillfully as I could.

Given these obstacles, I particularly value those times when I do find a comfortable engagement with women in the neighborhood, and I value the portraits that result. I'll plan to show a woman in my next post.

Fine-Fare Flags

2009-02-16T01:53:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, in my explorations of Red Hook and in my images I see suggestions of mysterious, secret worlds, hidden just beyond, through or under what is visible. This crack in parking-lot asphalt does that for me. It seems to be a little opening into the other, subterranean Red Hook that we will never fully see.

In case that seems overly fanciful, a technical note: The internet displays colors in a limited way. Some images are affected by this noticeably and others not. I was a little dismayed when I saw how this looked uploaded, but I think I'll post it anyway.

Football on Richards Street

2009-01-26T00:18:00.000-05:00

Shivering a little in the deep mid-winter, I went back into my archives from the early fall for this picture of boys who were pausing from playing football in the street. I love how differences make themselves evident in a group portrait (each subject standing in the same light in front of the same photographer but presenting themselves differently) and in this one they're pretty striking.

Reunited With Raheem

2009-01-16T18:08:00.000-05:00

Early in this project I met two boys smoking cigars on a cold morning before school. The portrait I took of them ended up hanging in the Brooklyn Museum and was important to my decision to stick with this Red Hook work. I showed that picture in this August 19 entry. Since last winter I've keep my eyes out for those boys. It turns out my friend Brian ran into them first, but two days later I ran into one of them, Raheem. He had heard from from Brian that his picture was in the Museum and told his friend about it excitedly as I stood there with my camera. It turns out the boys were brothers, Raheem and Raequan, which they hadn't mentioned when we first met last year. Raheem and the friend he was with wanted to be in another picture, and so here they are, with cups this time, instead of cigars. I got Raheem's number and hope to get together with the brothers to give them some prints and hopefully make another portrait soon.

Conover Street At Dusk

2009-01-01T17:56:00.000-05:00

Conover Street is one of the last blocks in Red Hook, furthest from the rest of Brooklyn and closest to the bay. It mostly contains small industrial buildings as well as some empty brick apartments waiting to be torn down, and the school where I work. But there are one or two blocks with little wood-frame houses lining one side of the street, facing towards the water. They seem so secret and so nestled and I wonder what it would be like to live tucked in one of their bastment apartments. I took these pictures as the sunset was casting the last bits of light down the cobblestone street.

The Bus Stop

2008-12-18T15:13:00.000-05:00

I've always had a fascination with skateboards, and have ridden them since I convinced my parents to get me one at K-Mart when I was about nine. I was first attracted to this young man because he was standing on a skateboard as he waited for the bus, and he seemed proud of it. We talked a little about skateboarding and I took one or two shots from further back, of him and the board, but some intuition told me to get closer for a more intimate picture. As I did, I think my proximity and close focus were a little much for him and he turned away slightly, still standing on the board. In that moment he showed some combination of bravery and vulnerability. I think it's this mix that often gives portraiture its power.

Metalworker

2008-11-29T14:37:00.001-05:00

It was early- before 8am- and cold. These guys' workshop was wide open. They let me in to check out their work, but there wasn't nearly enough light inside to shoot. This guy, William, was happy to step out into the morning light for a portrait. The other guy wasn't interested, but I love that his faint figure is back there in the shadows.

Dogs and Dog Tags

2008-08-24T19:16:00.001-04:00

When I'm looking at a portrait, I almost always want to see eyes and a face, so I try to make portraits that way. But when I was talking to this man in Coffey Park, and photographing him and his dogs, an interesting switch happened. He was facing me, but turned his head away, and his dog that was facing away turned her head back towards the camera, asserting herself as the main subject of the portrait.

I think he said that she was the mother of one or maybe both of the other snarling dogs- who I guess couldn't care less about being photographed.

Covered Car

2008-08-23T14:22:00.001-04:00

I did some internet research and as far as I can tell, this is a 1951 Pontiac Chieftain. The plates say Bolivia, but somehow it got tucked away in an old lot in the corner of Red Hook.

Woman with Bag

2008-08-20T11:02:00.000-04:00

I met this woman while she was waiting for the bus, and when I asked her if I could take her portrait she held her pose with uncanny focus and stillness. When I got the film back I kicked myself for not including her whole bag in the frame, but as I've spent time with the image I've come to like just seeing the little handles that pick up the blue of her shirt.

Boys Before School

2008-08-19T13:09:00.000-04:00

I met and photographed these boys a block from my apartment, early on a February morning. It was one of my first trips out in my neighborhood shooting this square format film, and this image helped convince me to stick with the project. The photo was included in the exhibition Click at the Brooklyn Museum and someone commented that the boys reminded him of a young Al Capone, who apparently also smoked stogies on the streets of Red Hook. A friend said the one on the left reminded her of Jay-Z. Another said it was the saddest picture in the exhibit. Another said he sees these boys everywhere, but I've been keeping an eye out for them when I'm walking in the neighborhood and I haven't seen them again.

New Man Dog (First Post)

2008-06-26T13:16:00.000-04:00

This blog is a way to show and write about my ongoing photographic project documenting the neighborhood where I live. It's about the people the streets and the light, and why I'm in love with them. Lots is being written and discussed about how Red Hook is changing. I love change, but I think this project is more about what's not changing, or about what's changing more slowly and going unnoticed.