Photography: Orchard Street

For the past two years I have spent most of my days (nights) on Orchard St, working, hanging out, chatting, eating, making friends, drinking, dancing, writing, working, pouring drinks, serving food, working and smiling. There is something very special about this one block on Orchard St that has been the main part of my life for a while now. I've been wanting to do some kind of photography project to document every day life on the block for the past few months, so over the past week I have had my camera on me at all times and have been taking random pictures of the street, the shops, the restaurants and bars, but also of friends and locals and business employees. It's not finished yet, there are a few people that either weren't around when I had my camera out that need to be part of this collection, so I am sure there will be updates over the next few weeks and months.

Orchard St, a set on Flickr.

For the time being just click on the link above to see the entire set.

Photography: Bushwick 2009-2012

Bushwick, a set on Flickr.

After posting the Harlem collection the other day, and after a comment from a friend about how I should build up the collection over time, I started thinking about all of the photos I have taken of my current neighbourhood, Bushwick, over the past four years I have lived here. I started really getting into photography back in 2009, mainly because the sheer amount of street art in my neighbourhood kept catching my eye, and I felt the need to start capturing it on camera.
Bushwick is a strange neighbourhood, part family, part warehouses. There are some very old townhouses and a lot of abandoned buildings, a lot of churches and a lot of noise, unless you live down one of the quieter streets. Over the past 4 years I have seen the area change rapidly, new bars, new restaurants, more organic supermarkets, new coffee shops, new people moving in, but it has still retained the same atmosphere and rents (hopefully, but I hear that a new music venue is going to be opening in Bushwick soon, so I'm sure that will effect rents soon enough).
I know it's not the safest, or the cleanest, or the prettiest neighbourhood in NYC, but it works for me. I don't see myself moving away from here, not anytime soon in any case.

These photos were taken over the past 3 years with different cameras, both digital and film (Canon AE-1 (one from 1980 and one from 1978; Canon Rebel DSLR; Holga). I know that I have posted some of these in other collections before, but feel like they belong in this one too.

Bushwick on Wikipedia