Mamiyaroid 53
Abolitionist Place
In late September I walked around Downtown Brooklyn waiting for a friend. I was in the habit of always having a camera on me because I was taking a photography class (which was great! David Rothenberg is fantastic.) and used my time to fulfill that week’s assignment. One of the exercises was to photograph evidence of change in New York.
There was a large construction site around Duffield Place and I was walking along its perimeter when I saw an old building that spoke to me as “change”.
After taking this photograph I walked around the block again and decided to frame the shiny new alienating buildings through a construction fence cutout.
As I was framing my shot a man walked by me and stopped to watch. Then he asked me what I was photographing. I pointed to the building through the hole and he said something like, “Yeah, that’s a nice building.” Then he asked me what I thought about the new buildings like that and I explained I was trying to show gentrification with the photo. That got him excited. He told me to follow him and he showed me the front of 227 Duffield Place and explained that his grandmother had owned the building and it was the center of a decade long preservation fight. Jay was a charming light-skinned black man in his late twenties. A few details he shared about spending time on the block: There was a man who ran a place called Jason’s Psychic-CJ Tea Room (here’s a NY Daily News piece from 1997 that gives a review of the place). He said Jason, a white man, had two golden retrievers and a Chinese boyfriend, and he’d parade up and down the block and ask Jay when he was going to come and visit. Later, when I told Jay my first name he said, “That’s the name of my kindergarten crush!” The coincidence of that detail made me wonder if he actually is the grandson of Mama Joy Chatel, or if she was someone he heard stories about and made his own. Either way, he was passionate about preserving the house.
Read more about the fight and the eventual landmarks preservation designation. Sadly, it seems the Chatel family was swindled out of their property.
These days, my favorite photography moments are when I interact with other people. I’m not sure what form it will take, but I hope to find a way to intersect photography with people and their stories.
I know it’s been a while and I’d love to hear from you! If you have any great photographs you’d like to share, please respond to this email. They can be your photographs or just photographs you love.
Until next time…
Adalena
I love to receive comments and questions about photography and cameras!
My email: adalenakavanagh@gmail.com
Instagram: @mamiyaroid (instant/film) @5redpandas (personal)
Twitter: @adalenakavanagh
Also, if you’re thinking of buying Polaroid film for the first time, here is my referral code, which gets you 10% off, and I get some reward points.
Original photography prints: adalenakavanagh.bigcartel.com (I change out the shop every month of so. If you see something you like, let me know, I’m happy to make you a print.)
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-Adalena Kavanagh