… all of the pictures that fell into the uncomfortable category were of African-Americans. It was clear that an important part of the project, as it developed, became, for my father, to document the experience of people, mostly African-Americans, who lived in a part of the city different from the one where he had grown up; yet it was also clear that this young White Ivy League graduate felt conspicuous and awkward wandering around in unfamiliar neighborhoods with his camera, like a tourist where a tourist shouldn’t be. His pictures were often taken at odd angles, as if quickly grabbed, and, though later cropped and straightened in the printing, often taken from behind something else—partly the pictures of a tourist, perhaps, but also the notes of a sort of spy.
— from Benjamin Swett’s “My Father’s Green Album” in the current issue of Salmagundi, #210-211. Read the full piece on the site below
… all of the pictures that fell into the uncomfortable category were of African-Americans. It was clear that an important part of the project, as it developed, became, for my father, to document the experience of people, mostly African-Americans, who lived in a part of the city different from the one where he had grown up; yet it was also clear that this young White Ivy League graduate felt conspicuous and awkward wandering around in unfamiliar neighborhoods with his camera, like a tourist where a tourist shouldn’t be. His pictures were often taken at odd angles, as if quickly grabbed, and, though later cropped and straightened in the printing, often taken from behind something else—partly the pictures of a tourist, perhaps, but also the notes of a sort of spy.
— from Benjamin Swett’s “My Father’s Green Album” in the current issue of Salmagundi, #210-211. Read the full piece on the site below
… all of the pictures that fell into the uncomfortable category were of African-Americans. It was clear that an important part of the project, as it developed, became, for my father, to document the experience of people, mostly African-Americans, who lived in a part of the city different from the one where he had grown up; yet it was also clear that this young White Ivy League graduate felt conspicuous and awkward wandering around in unfamiliar neighborhoods with his camera, like a tourist where a tourist shouldn’t be. His pictures were often taken at odd angles, as if quickly grabbed, and, though later cropped and straightened in the printing, often taken from behind something else—partly the pictures of a tourist, perhaps, but also the notes of a sort of spy.
— from Benjamin Swett’s “My Father’s Green Album” in the current issue of Salmagundi, #210-211. Read the full piece on the site below
