My Journey in Harlem
(pictures below are just several of my series. The complete version of my photographs are in the link above. Please click “Harlem” in the title.)
I went to Harlem for this assignment and it ended up pretty “interesting”.
I wasn’t worried about anything before I went and I was even kind of excited about this journey because I have never been to Harlem. So I packed my camera and got into the subway. Once I get out of the subway, everything seems different right away. There’s broken sighs and dirty roads. But it didn’t affect my mood. I decide to go to the neighborhood where local people live and observe them.
On my way, I heard someone saying hello in mandarin to me so I stoped and looked around. I found it was a guy selling books. I smiled at him and he smiled back. So I went forward and ask if I can take a picture of him, and he was like “why taking a picture of me? Take a picture of the car please.” This is the exact words he used. So I had this beautiful car with this beautiful sentence.
I then moved forward towards the neighborhood. It was around 4 or 5 o’clock so parents are holding children hands as well as their enormous bags. Everything seemed so peaceful and lovely.
But then things changed, when I started to take a closer look of how fast people walk passing me and their facial expressions. Not much of them are smiling, not to 10% of them. Also, people are staring at me, or my camera, and shouting at their kids to stay away from me, like it wasn’t a camera that I was holding. I mean I didn’t understand what they said in Spanish but it happens all the time when I tried to take picture of kids. I walked further to a huge park where I saw people playing chess and chatting. This was the time that things getting to the worst. Firstly, there were several guys who is like around 190 centimeters tall and double sized of me shouted at me in english to not take pictures of them. Then there was this old lady in wheelchair pointed at me and said Spanish. All kids stopped playing and stared at me like I have done something harmful to their lives.
It wasn’t their attitudes that made me feel angry. I was super confused why they were trying to kick me off their territory in this irrational way. I mean they kind of look scared at me or my camera and pretended to be tough. But then I am more confused that I am skinny and seems like a little rabbit compare to several 190cm men. And I don’t have any privilege considering about my race. I REALLY wondered why they are feeling so unsafe and anxious even in their own neighborhood. No conclusion has been generated yet.
I then felt unsafe and anxious as well as them and I felt like running away from their high away.
