Lowell, Massachusetts

(2005-2009)

Portrait of a neighborhood in transition. Jackson, Appleton, & Middlesex Streets in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Black and white image of Lowell houses.

Black and white image of two men standing on a street corner smoking and talking.

I lived in Lowell for nearly a decade, during a time of rapid change within the community. Once upon a time, during the Industrial Revolution, Lowell was a powerful cotton mill city buzzing with workers and wealthy mill owners.

After the cotton mills left town in the 1920s, Lowell fell into poverty and disrepair, struggling to find its purpose. The crack epidemic of the 1980s and 90s hit the community hard (as seen in the 1995 documentary filmed in Lowell, High on Crack Street). The giant cotton mill buildings remained largely empty and in shambles, with their roofs caved in and bricks crumbling.

Black and white image of a brick wall in an old industrial building that's abandoned and falling apart.

In the early 2000s, developers started buying up some of these old dinosaurs, gutting their interiors, and installing bright open-concept condo units inside. It seemed the city had finally found a purpose, as an outpost for young professionals that were being priced out of towns closer to Boston on the train line—People willing to pay a quarter of a million dollars to live in an old brick town, in a run down neighborhood, which they were promised would get “cleaned up” very soon. The new residents glanced nervously over their shoulders at night, discarded dirty needles from the building’s dark stairwells, and chatted quietly in the hallways about when the homeless shelter might be moved “somewhere farther out.”

But looking out to these streets, I discovered a rich and complex world, full of lives lived in the open, unguarded interactions, and untempered emotion. Real people who wouldn’t cease to exist after being “cleaned up” and shuffled out of sight.

Black and white image of a group of men drinking coffee outside a garage.

Black and white image of man pushing grocery cart down a road.

Black and white image of a man with a cane and white hair and beard, drinking from a beer can on the street.

Black and white image of an empty street and storefronts, and a shopping cart in the road.

Black and white image of a young person with baggy pants walking across the road.

Black and white image of a man walking from a dumpster to a shopping cart, with a bottle in his hand.

Black and white image of a crossing guard walking across the street holding an umbrella covered in snow.

Black and white image of an adult and two children crossing the road.

Black and white image of school window, with paper printouts showing photographs of local sex offenders.

Black and white image of a policeman walking in the road with a long shadow.

Black and white image of a demolished city block with a construction vehicle parked.

Black and white image of a person leaning out of a third story window of a residential building.

Black and white image of a window with white curtains opened to a fire escape.

Black and white image of people on their porches, on multiple levels of an apartment building.

Color image of a woman crossing the road.

Color image of a man walking down the road smoking a cigarette.

Color image of a woman sitting behind a clothing donation box, smoking and using a mobile phone.

Color image of a man leaning against a low cement wall reading a book.

Color image of two people standing close looking at one another. One person is touching the other person's chin.

Color image of a van stopped in the road. The person in the passenger's seat leans out of the window to light the cigarette of a person standing outside of the van.

Color image of a woman in tight jeans and a belly shirt walking down the street talking on the phone.

Color image of two people outside a house, watching the road.

Color image of a man in a bright red hat standing in the road.

Color image of five people in the road coming from different directions. The central figure is covering his eyes with his hand, while a man next to him leans in close to say something.

Color image of a man smoking a cigarette in a hidden alcove. Another man walking by stops and peers at him around the corner of a building.

Color image of a man riding a bicycle next to a tree in full bloom with pink flowers.