Kensington

Kensington, a neighborhood of North Philadelphia, is the largest open drug market in the world. The images in Kensington Blues explore the rough, troubled environment in which this industry thrives, focusing on the daily lives of the people who inhabit it. The projects goal is to provide a meaningful glimpse into this illicit world. It was inspired by photography I had previously done in Brooklyn’s East New York, long considered the borough’s most desperate neighborhood. I found then, as I have now, that the more time I spent in the area, the more open my subjects became with me: more secrets and insights were provided. I visited Kensington every week over a period of nine months, spending full days photographing my subjects in front of bright, paint-splattered walls, huge dirty trucks, forlorn train tracks and ramshackle fences. Thousands of addicts and dealers throng Kensington Avenue, injecting fentanyl into their necks and arms, or smoking crack. They slump against walls, and often freeze in mid-motion, paralyzed from the effects of xylazine, an animal tranquilizer used to cut the fentanyl, and prolong the high. Some walk up and down the avenue, getting into the ca