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.

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.)

(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.

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.

Michael (another guy)

(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.

Boys Before School

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)

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.