The New York Times - USA (2020-06-25)

A2 N THE NEW YORK TIMES, THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2020

When the coronavirus swept across New

York City, it became instantly clear which

cracks in society were going to become

chasms. People living in the city’s public

housing were particularly at risk, given

the overcrowding, their limited resources

and their jobs, many of which called for

them to keep working outside their homes.

As a freelance photojournalist, I pro-

posed an article that focused on those

residents. The reporter David Gonzalez, a

team of editors and I came upon families

in the South Bronx who were continuing a

community tradition of organizing to help

their neighbors. The social distancing

policies that kept our subjects and us safe

prevented me from intimately capturing

people in their homes. So instead, we

handed them cameras.

I sanitized and dropped off a Fujifilm

Instax Mini, several cartridges of film,

simple instructions and a list of sugges-

tions about what to shoot. My hope was

that their pictures would be reminiscent of

family photo albums. David and I had

sensed themes through our interviews,

which led to specific prompts and ques-

tions. What are some challenges to educat-

ing your kids at home? What is your setup

there? What does boredom look like?

One woman, Ramona Ferreyra, men-

tioned that her grandmother’s birthday

was coming up, so I asked her to photo-

graph what they would be doing to cele-

brate. She also told me the hot water was

out in her building, an issue common

among residents in the city’s public hous-

ing, and that the dishes were piling up. So

I asked her to shoot that.

I teach photography, and as an educator,

I am wary of directing my students’ vision

and changing how they see. I view my role

as helping them fill gaps in their storytell-

ing. I did once show Ramona an image to

give her an idea about how she might

photograph her grandmother’s hands

playing dominoes, but ultimately the

intimacy in Ramona’s photos did not come

from my guidance; it came from their

relationship. A portrait of her grand-

mother, Carmen Perez, with the ease and

sparkle in Carmen’s eyes, is something

only Ramona could have captured.

I’ll admit, removing myself as the pho-

tographer initially bruised my ego. Al-

though I have always been uncomfortable

with the dynamic between subject and

photographer — we wield a lot of power —

when I received this opportunity to work

in a more collaborative way, the process

felt foreign. But after looking at the pic-

tures as a whole, I realized that this ap-

proach resulted in a richer portrait of

these lives.

What I took away from working on this

project is that this community has been

overlooked for generations, but that the

power and determination of the people

who live there have kept the Bronx alive.

I am often asked by people I interview,

“What do you know about living here?”

David grew up in the Bronx, but they are

right. What do I know? I am only learning

and sharing what I learn. I hope this

process got to the heart of that a little

more. I’m grateful for the time and vulner-

ability that each person in this article

shared with us. They are the story.

Inside The Times

THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY

A portrait by Ramona Ferreyra of Carmen Perez, her

grandmother, for an article about residents coping in the Bronx.

RAMONA FERREYRA

When the Subjects Take the Shots

By GABRIELA BHASKAR

To read the article on the Bronx families, go to

Page A6.

June 25, 1939.There was a caffeine buzz in the offing at the New York World’s Fair in

Queens, The Times reported: Four coffee organizations were due to meet in the morning,

“go to the Court of Peace for flag-raising ceremonies and return to the Venezuelan pavil-

ion for iced coffee.” The Times had reported a year earlier on a concerted push by coffee

interests to promote iced coffee in order to reverse the decline in coffee sales during the

summer months.

Subscribers can browse the complete Times archives through 2002 at timesmachine.nytimes.com.

On This Day in History

A MEMORABLE HEADLINE FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES

TODAY IS ‘ICED COFFEE’ DAY

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EVENT

How will museums changein the

years ahead, in the face of uncer-

tain federal financing for the arts?

The Times’s Corner Office col-

umnist, David Gelles, will talk to

Lonnie G. Bunch III, the secretary

of the Smithsonian Institution and

the founding director of the Na-

tional Museum of African Ameri-

can History and Culture. Tuesday,

June 30, 2:30 p.m. E.D.T.

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