Statement on the work follows the images. Please scroll down.
"Jen Circle"
"J"
"Stairwell"
"Ganja"
"Rebecca's Room"
"Jill Fire Escape"
"German Dude"
"Marcelo"
"Girls At Dance Party"
"Dogs At Dusk"
"Future Bathroom"
"Heidy"
"Wash The Dog I"
"Wash Your Hair I"
"Wash The Dog II"
"Jill On Porch"
"Katie With Saw"
"Erez Setting I-Beam"
"Ghetto"
"Glasshouse Protest"
"Wash Your Hair II"
"Jason"
"Jill and Katie"
"Jill and Megan"
"Jill And Soy"
"Joey's Room"
"Katie's Room"
"Erez Reclining"
"Laura"
"Maria"
"Mattie And Towers"
"Serenity Porch"
"Potato Head Interior"
"Interior With Broom"
"Bellydancing In The Hall"
"Roger and Dogs"
"Room In Progress"
"Ryan On Bed"
"Erez at 5th Street"
"Serenity Garden With Flag"
"Megan And Jill at Wall I"
"Megan and Jill at Wall II"
"Serenity Stairs In Progress I"
"Serenity Garden, Reading"
"Side Door 5th St."
"Side Yard"
"Smalls"
S\"Squirt- Methadone"
"Stephanie"
"Summer"
"C Squat Doorway"
"Cheese On Fence 1"
"Fence Down"
"Nude Guitarist"
"Kids In Hydrant"
"Dave At Grill"
"Block Party 1"
"Block Party 2"
"Block Party Ladies"
"Mr. Happy"
"Amy At Grill"
Roger In Garden"
"Self Portrait On Beach"
"Bronwyn At The Beach"
"Steph's New Window 1"
"Steph's New Window 2"
"Steph's New Window 3"
"Steph's New Window 4"
"Steph's New Window 5"
"Maria and Roger on Serenity Roof"
"5th St. Squat Roof Work Day"
"Work Day With Toby"These images were made between 1993 and 1999 in the squatting community in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. To date, I have around three hundred images from this period. I lived in several different squats throughout my undergraduate years, alternating at times with renting an apartment. These are people I lived with, ate with, worked with, slept with, loved, admired and was affected by.
I photographed in this environment for a couple of reasons. The first is personal. I had just landed in New York form Memphis to attend art school (SVA) and was getting my bearings. At the time, I was deep into punk-rock music and culture: Jell-O Biafra, feminism, Eve Libertine (of Crass), DIY culture, Bob Black, anti-consumerism, civil disobedience for social change, spray paint, human rights and Henry Rollins!!!!
I was studying with Thomas Roma, who introduced a new way of creating meaning and expression through picture making. I was deeply influenced by Gary Winogrand, Lee Freidlander, Helen Levitt, Walker Evans, and Henri-Cartier Bresson, to name a few. I was also mentored by Raghubir Singh, and Indian photographer, whom I met through Mr. Roma.
In the pursuit of art making, I wanted to keep it real, work within my immediate surroundings, and create work that reflected my ideals. I was only partially aware at the time that I had more muses than most of the men of art history combined and all in a condensed area of about twenty blocks. What fun I had!
Second reason- people needed documentation of the work they did on the buildings. This would help in gaining/maintaining property rights for the residents who took condemned buildings and brought them up to code at no cost to the city. This not only provided low-income housing but also greatly improved the appearance of the neighborhood. The building fronts were cleaned up and adjoining lots were often turned from dumping grounds to gardens.
In contextualizing this work within the history of art, I would say look to situationism, culture-jamming, Bob Black, DIY, Marxism, and anarchism. This is not "How The Other Half Lives" part two (Jacob Riis), or a diaristic journey through a particular subculture (a la Nan Goldin), although it shares elements with both. This work is a visual exploration and documentation of how these particular people at this particular time took a radical concept of housing and lived it out on a daily basis. We made a life out of New York's excess and refuse. We banded together and created community. We also partied our asses off! I hope someday to publish a monograph of this body of work and have a more extensive exhibition. To be continued…
