This work is about an inner city urban area in social isolation and economic desperation. I was told not to go there. There is a taboo; ordinary people stay away from that area, and the people who reside there seem to stay within their territory. The area is described as dangerous, both by residents and outsiders; it seems exotic. A place where the rules -to a certain extent- don't apply. It is a place people want to see on television, but they don't really want to be there. It is a place that can be easily ignored. It's streets do not sleep day or night.
This is a project about the people in this neighborhood, but also about me as an artist. It is about pushing my own limits, and pushing at other peoples' limits. Others allowed me to push at their limits by allowing me to be a part of their lives. I pushed at my own limits by putting myself in dangerous situations. This is a project that captures visual images depicting the results of a neighborhood being socially marginalized. I collaborated with individuals coming from a different lifestyle to learn about an inner city neighbor"hood" and taking photographs of the personalities and characteristics that are the make-up of the community. My photographs depict people within this small community in relation to myself as the photographer.
