Z-one

“A portrait! What could be more simple and more complex, more obvious and more profound?” -Charles Baudelaire, 1859 My project, Z-ONE, is about weaving together a community through photography where none existed before. It turns out living in a city surrounded by people is isolating for many. We are crammed up against each other by concrete but might as well have rivers and mountains between us. Estrangement gripped me as I passed by people and neither of us said hello. And so I began stopping people on the street two years ago and inviting myself into their homes to photograph them for portraits. With little hesitation, they have been eager to participate. As I take my neighbors’ portraits, I talk to them, molding our conversations into biographical sketches. To all who allowed me into their homes, and trusted me with their stories, I feel immensely grateful. I now call many of my subjects, my friends. I also quickly discovered that we share all one thing in common: the need for community. And so I continue to walk up to strangers and talk to them and take their pictures. Though my project has its roots in my own sense of isolation, it has also tapped into a broader unrest in the city about our changing cityscape. We are in a period of rapid gentrification, stratification and separation. Google buses are being blockaded. Rents are spiraling upward. People are uneasy. In fact, three of my subjects have been displaced either by eviction or buy-outs since I began this project. A new demographic of young, and affluent tech workers are emerging replacing those who have been encouraged to move out of the city. I photograph them, too. Z-ONE was not conceived to document these changes. But these experiences – all of them – inform the title of the project: I am the one who resides in the zone of our neighborhood.