Jonathan Auch is a 31-year old Native New Yorker who has worked for years as an exhibition printer and assistant to well-known street photographers like James Nachtwey and Bruce Gilden. Presumably learning a thing or four from his teachers, his freelance photography is nothing short of brilliant.
In a series of street photographs titled Portraits | Bushwick | Part I, Auch captures the raw, intimate details of average, unpolished Brooklynites, visiting a side of Bushwick which is often ignored by the media.
The NYT recently dubbed Bushwick; “the newest Bohemia… arguably the coolest place on the planet”. The neighborhood is on the frontier of gentrification. East Bushwick has not been entirely cleansed of its community and heritage; it is at a moment of optimal diversity and relative well being which will soon end.
I have begun to document this change through a series of ‘straight’ black and white portraits.
These uninteruppted images, give pause with their directness, concentrating attention on each face whose eyes return the gaze, affirming their existence and requesting acknowledgement. In New York City, we look down and away, too busy to meet the eyes of strangers, or fearful that the might ask us for the most precious of emotional commodities: recognition.
You can follow Jonathan Auch's work through his website.
Matt Coneybeare
Editor in Chief
Matt enjoys exploring the City's with his partner and son. He is an avid marathon runner, and spends most of his time eating, running, and working on cool stuff.
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