Smoking Chefs

Smoking chefs is a portrait series of chefs in Manhattan on a cigarette break. I started this project because as I walked around the city I noticed the amount of chefs smoking on the streets, normally down a back alley or standing under a roof. What intrigued me was the contrast of them shivering in the cold on the pavement to the hot steaming kitchens that they are temporarily absent from. These are working chefs not fine dining chefs. When asked - is it an opportunity to get fresh air? Is it the stress of having to prepare food quickly and efficiently to hundreds of people everyday? No one answer was the same. What I love about shooting these portraits is that it reveals a microcosm of the people who inhabit the streets of New York daily.