LOCATION: Staten Island, NY 2017

DETAILS: Kodak Portra 400

For the past year I've been busy working on a personal project that focuses on a handful of communities facing gentrification in Staten Island’s North Shore. In that time, I’ve had the opportunity to meet some of the most incredible people from community leaders and activists to local business owners, residents, and the everyday passerby.

While I toured neighborhoods like Stapleton, St. George, New Brighton, and more, where new developments are quickly becoming a mainstay, I began to photograph in color for the first time, experimenting with a different way of shooting and seeing.

These photographs offer a brief look at what I found to be the everyday life in some of the North Shore neighborhoods that I often frequent.

“Choosing to focus on gentrification is not an indictment of change that is inevitable on Staten Island or in other cities in America. Rather, it is an observation of how consumerism fuels seismic changes that ultimately contribute to the neglect of the issues afflciting a community and its people.”