{"id":83414,"date":"2025-12-29T12:22:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T12:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/83414\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T12:22:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T12:22:09","slug":"in-photos-00s-brooklyn-on-the-cusp-of-gentrification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/83414\/","title":{"rendered":"In photos: \u201900s Brooklyn on the cusp of gentrification"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thork began hanging out almost daily in Bed-Stuy photographing Jamal and his friends,\u00a0preserving a\u00a0slice of city life in the tradition of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.huckmag.com\/search?q=jamel+shabazz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jamel Shabazz<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.huckmag.com\/search?q=Arlene+Gottfried\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arlene Gottfried<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.huckmag.com\/search?q=Nan+Goldin\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nan\u00a0Goldin<\/a>, and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.huckmag.com\/search?q=Peter+Hujar\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Peter Hujar<\/a>. \u200b\u201cAs a\u00a0rule, I\u00a0don\u2019t photograph people for the sake of photographing them. I\u00a0need to get to know them and familiarize myself with their environment,\u201d he says. \u200b\u201cThey are more important than the image because without them and their approval, there is no\u00a0image.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>At the heart of Thork\u2019s work lies mutual respect born of the knowledge that trust must be earned. \u200b\u201cA stranger with a\u00a0camera is always looked upon with suspicion. People used to ask me if I\u00a0was a\u00a0cop when they saw me taking pictures,\u201d he says. \u200b\u201cWhen I\u00a0started, some people told me that in the \u200b\u201980s and \u200b\u201990s, very well into the early 2000s, the police used to be on rooftops in different parts of Brooklyn taking pictures of people below. I\u00a0can confirm this because I\u00a0have witnessed this myself.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Brooklyn of these photographs, made between 2005 and 2018, no longer exists as it once did. Pointing to an image of two young men listening attentively to gentleman in a\u00a0dark suit and wearing a\u00a0hat, Thork says, \u200b\u201cThat scene used to be a\u00a0typical one in Brooklyn where guys would gather on a\u00a0street corner to discuss serious topics, sharing knowledge about esoteric ancient African religions, particularly ancient Egyptian religions. Small outdoor gatherings to have intellectual discussions are just not happening anymore. This is why that particular photograph is my favourite one out of the\u00a0book.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thork began hanging out almost daily in Bed-Stuy photographing Jamal and his friends,\u00a0preserving a\u00a0slice of city life in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[40822,40826,40820,32486,98,100,99,262,40825,40824,5069,610,9,24,63,40821,40827,40828,40823,40819,1068],"class_list":{"0":"post-83414","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-40822","9":"tag-archive","10":"tag-began","11":"tag-borough","12":"tag-brooklyn","13":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","14":"tag-brooklyn-news","15":"tag-city","16":"tag-east","17":"tag-hanging","18":"tag-living","19":"tag-local","20":"tag-new-york","21":"tag-new-york-city","22":"tag-nyc","23":"tag-photographing","24":"tag-preserves","25":"tag-slice","26":"tag-stint","27":"tag-thork","28":"tag-york"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}