Saturday, August 17, 2013

1997, The Bronx, NYC




I took this picture while documenting "existing uses" for a project in one of my urban planning graduate classes in New York City. My aim was to take a shot that showed the building facades and some of the recent upgrades in street facade improvements (note the decorative streetlights and careful attention to the trees.)

At the time I was also an avid photographer, and so I preferred to take these kinds of pictures with people...creating a "human scale" for pictures.

These two little kids were by themselves, in what appeared to school uniforms, and they served my goal of adding that human scale to the pic. Our lives crossed paths for just a moment.

For years I have looked at this picture. How many people had already come to the South Bronx and used their neighborhood as the backdrop for some story or study? The boy seemed to stop in his tracks while the girl seemed unphased, or eager to keep moving. Who are they? They seem young, why were they by themselves? I assumed all these years they are brother/sister.

Where are they today? I suppose "God only knows" is a fair statement. How was their childhood? What are they doing now? I've always silently wished them well.

It's one of the pictures up on my desk at work--I've carried it from job to job...always wondering about those two little ones who shared a brief moment with me on a South Bronx street one day in 1997.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

No comments: