PHOTO ESSAY | Photographer

Sanctuary was an ethnographic photo essay that sought to dispel the notion that New Hampshire is a homogenous place to live. After I moved there with my family from lower Manhattan, I was struck by the growing diversity in nearby Concord and Manchester. Around the same time, I had some NYC street work hung at a pop-up gallery. I was approached by the Manchester Arts Commission to photograph what was at the time, the new population of refugees and immigrants for an upcoming show at the local City Hall. Manchester was one of the few sanctuary cities in New England. They came to live in New Hampshire from as far away as Africa, Bosnia, Bhutan, Iraq, Nepal, and Turkey. These are a few selects.

Each subject was shot on 35mm film with natural light, and handheld, using a Nikon FM2. All lenses are manual. I’m a self-taught photographer, inspired by numerous mentors, some living and working in LA and NYC, others whose legacy I admire, like Irving Penn, Henri Cartier-Bresson and the raw spirit of Elliot Erwitt’s street snaps.

Many of these photos, along with others from the shoot, hung as OOH posters throughout Manchester for the TEDx Inside Out Project.