New York 70-ies

In the early 1970s in New York, I visited the photographer Camilo José Vergara, and this is what he saw: "I arrived in New York during the Vietnam War in 1970, the year before he narrowly escaped bankruptcy. Fine buildings were abandoned, the streets are dirty, empty parks, schools have been the old look. The abandoned houses were running dogs of the pack, and on their roofs were trees. Settlers opened the door and made holes in the walls. They rented boards from the windows for natural lighting and ventilation, thus turning empty buildings into shelters for the homeless, shooting galleries and shooting ranges.

I was in the ghetto areas, harsh and hazardous locations, as evidenced by the inscriptions on the walls calling for blacks and Hispanics to break the chains of oppression and become free. Dynamic street life, rebellious spirit, the absence of the white people, destroyed homes and the constant fear of being robbed or killed. On the streets, I was faced with anger and confusion. People did not know when and where to wait for the next blow.

The sidewalks were a continuation of the residential spaces. Young people stood along the walls. Church kept its doors open. The clergy sat on the tracks in front of their houses of prayer. While the adults were smiling like children, and asked me to show them to get a photo. Sometimes I listen to what people are saying in a phone booth. Once I heard a man talking on the phone that his girlfriend threw all his things out of the window of their apartment. I photographed people in the subway, men playing dominoes, street signs, advertising on houses and of course the graffiti. I joined weddings, raised in the apartment building and did portraits of elderly people sitting in the dark and looking out onto the street.

I wanted to capture a secret life in the ghetto. With him I always had a few lenses: wide angle lens for capturing panoramas and telephoto shooting more specific scenes. During the early stages of their documentation, I did not write down the names of people and buildings address. I tried to capture the essence, beyond time, personal names, and physical space.

Fear is part of my photographic work. I quickly learned to walk and cross the street at the right time, to avoid a meeting with a group of young people in a threatening manner. Several times I said that I left the neighborhood, because otherwise my camera will be selected or broken. Once I got hit in the face and my glasses fell to the ground. On the rare occasions when I came across a police car in these areas, the order of the ministers suspected me of selling or drug search. After the words that I have lost, they advised me to leave here immediately, warning that I can rob.

In the early 1970s I witnessed the stabbing of a young black man, released from the train platform to the North on 125th Street. It was a sunny day and I did not even think that such an event could occur. Blood ran down his chest of the victim. The attacker ran away several times looking back until it disappeared around the corner of Madison Avenue. Now, in 2013, I am happy that my early photographs of New York have survived to the present day. These pictures I see glimpses of the city the dying, who has disappeared - historical artifacts, personal moments in the life of people, old buildings, all that is left behind. "