Thursday, November 8, 2012

Rockaways Before Sandy



My heart and mind are in the Rockaways. I am finally going out there to look for old friends and to witness the unthinkable.

Here are a couple of images I took over the years. The photograph of the young girl folding her laundry was taken in a laundromat that no longer stands. I photographed the woman in the Irish green tiara in front of her home this past St. Paddy's Day. And the camper belongs to Bob. I can't imagine how Bob managed to survive the flooding in his camper home.




"Irish Day Parade Portrait #1", Rockaways, NYC. 2012. ©Juliana Beasley




"Laundromat", Rockaways, NYC. 2012. ©Juliana Beasley




"Bob's Camper", Rockaways, NYC. 2012. ©Juliana Beasley

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Dear Rockaways



I send all my prayers and love to all those who are struggling and suffering in the aftermath ofHurricane Sandy. The Rockaways has been a refuge and a home to many of the city's forgotten and dismissed. It has also been a refuge for me from my own life over the last ten years. I am thankful for all the people I have met and whom let me photograph them and who shared their lives with me. At heart, the Rockaway's is a strong community and will surmount this latest blow. They need our help. Here are a few photographs I took over the years.  Sweet memories of another time and dear friends.



"Valerie", Rockaways, NYC, Winter 2007(?). ©Juliana Beasley



"Tara", Rockaways, NYC, Summer 2002. ©Juliana Beasley





"Patient Walking Down 116th", Rockaways, NYC. ©Juliana Beasley


Thursday, October 18, 2012

Rockaway's Archive #3

October 18, 2012. I miss 115th street. I miss Ma and I miss Billy. I miss being around people who make me smile and who I make smile. I even miss the stench of cat urine mixed with layers of cigarette smoke coating the walls and fabric in her room in the boarding house. It's time to wrap this project up and I'm still holding on. I haven't been out there in months and I didn't make it out there for the summer. My therapist told me that I had to put this on the top of my priority list. She even told me that she would give me $300. to help pay for a designer to make my book dummy. I wasn't even talking about the Rockaway's when she offered. She has stood by my side every inch of the way... through the deaths of both my parents, through the bleak emptiness of my own personal incarceration to the highs and the sound of my laughter weaving in and out of the last ten years of this roller coaster ride of mine. If you can't laugh at the completely absurd and the unfairness of life than you might miss out on a lot of laughing.

I turned the corner and I saw the super of the SRO on the ladder. I asked him if I could take a photograph of him.



"The Super", Rockaways, NYC. 2011. ©Juliana Beasley



I was hanging out at Lulu's boarding house. We were hanging outside on the stairs. I got into a conversation with her husband and a local. Lulu went her house and when she came out, she was carrying a platter covered in very young puppies. I believe they were only one week old. I asked her if I could take a portrait of her with the plate of puppies.



"LuLu and the Puppies on a Platter", Rockaways, NYC. 2011. ©Juliana Beasley





Sunday, October 7, 2012

Rockaway's Archives #2

"Pastor Gary's Daughter", Rockaways, NY, 2011. ©Juliana Beasley



"Kelly, Pastor Gary's Daughter", Rockaways, NY, 2011. ©Juliana Beasley

Monday, October 1, 2012

Rockaway's Archives #1

From the archives. I don't believe I have shown these. A day hanging out in the Rockaways in 2011.



"Maria. I'm Not That Simple", Rockaways, NYC, 2011. ©Juliana Beasley




"Billy and Maria", Rockaways, NYC, 2011. ©Juliana Beasley




"Hanging out on Steps #1", Rockaways, NYC, 2011. ©Juliana Beasley




"Hanging out on Steps #2", Rockaways, NYC, 2011. ©Juliana Beasley

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

More from the Archives...

More shots from my series of portraits I took last during during a bike trip in Quebec.



"Anonymous Boy in Street", Quebec, Canada, 2011. Juliana Beasley.




 
"Anonymous Cashier in Grocery Store", Quebec, Canada, 2011. Juliana Beasley.

Monday, September 10, 2012

From the Archives...



Last year I traveled up to Quebec to go on a week long bike trip. It seems like it is has become impossible to take vacations anymore without bringing my camera and finding a project around every corner I turn. So, here is one shot, I discovered in my external hard drive named Franz. I can't remember this boy's name. He was standing out front in his driveway with two of his friends. The hood of his car was open and they were working away at fixing the engine.



"Anonymous Ado in Front of House", Quebec, Canada. Summer 2011. Juliana Beasley.




 I have others of him that I might post later.