Alphabet City
Photographs by Cameron McNee
For a string of Saturdays in Summer ’16, my white backdrop was a magnet for the loud, the laid back and the local legends of the Lower East Side. The quotes below were collected from the people I photographed.
‘When I move out of home I will have to leave, I will never be able to afford to live here.’
‘We call it Loisaida, it’s Spanish for Lower East Side’
‘The 80’s! My kids used to have to step over bodies on the way to school, the heroin was everywhere.’
‘There used to be horses and food markets here. Then there were burnt out cars, and now it’s like this… it’s better.’
‘It’s a strong community, it’s a feeling of pride.
‘It’s my home, it’s my people.”