“In 1999, as I walked out my apartment, I saw a transformation taking place. New street lights? What is this about? As I searched for answers, I saw and heard of more changes starting to occur in my neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn (street vendors were being moved, the Franklin Avenue shuttle was being rebuilt and talks of rent in the neighborhood being doubled in ten years were being discussed at community board meetings). Two years prior, I had just started teaching myself how to photograph. With change coming to the community and the stigma of the neighborhood being a slum, I decided to make photographs that would reflect what I saw.
