Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York · Community
Community Matters 2
100 photographs
RW2PK · the mural park
2021 · 1:00
Youth City Cleanup
2021 · 5:10
Our Vote Matters
2020 · 2:45
HOOK · part one
6:48
Since 2020 I've photographed and filmed Community Matters 2 in Poughkeepsie: city clean-ups, census and voter drives, a mural park, boxing and golf, leadership and etiquette programmes, a podcast, and the dinner that closes each year.
Straight down over downtown: rooftops, parking lots and the city grid.
The films below come first. The photographs follow the city from morning fog to the lit bridge at night.
From above, volunteers gather where the park's paths meet, ready to fan out.The newly painted wall loops through the park in blue, yellow and red.
A painted hand throws up the CM sign, wrapped in ribbons of the same colors.A painted portrait watches over the park from the new mural.
Handprints in every color, pressed into the wall by the people who painted it.
Even the stair rails got the treatment.An artist signs the wall, the last stroke on the project.
A speaker lifts an arm to the crowd at the park's dedication.
Tote bags go out by the armful as the dedication crowd lines up.A family poses beside the mural's portrait, the baby in pink stealing the frame.
A girl grins beside the painted portrait, a butterfly on her shirt.
Laughter in the sun, a headwrap in every color of the day.Poughkeepsie Is Better, across a volunteer's back.
Supplies in her arms and a laugh she can't hold in.
Four volunteers stand behind the morning's work, a heap of full bags at the curb.Three volunteers in work gloves pose with the bag they've been filling.
A volunteer drags a full bag across the grass in front of a painted wall.
One more bag goes up into the truck.Gloved up and grinning, the youngest crew pulls weeds from the sidewalk cracks.
Volunteers spread out behind the big POK letters.
A quick picture in front of the sign before the next block.In waders, a volunteer works her way up the creek.
A teenager holds the bag open while a small helper drops in what she found.
College volunteers pile their bags beneath the clock tower.A selfie in the park, gloves still on.
A long mural of neighbors lines the basketball court where the youth cleanup begins.
Everyone in one frame: the youth cleanup crew fills the court.Students work the planters, pulling trash out from between the roses.
A paper cup caught in the rosebush, next on the list.
A shopkeeper raises a fist from his doorway as the cleanup passes.A camera operator rolls on the crowd, gimbal steady and mic up.
A laugh under a winter hood, rake in hand.
The youth cleanup heads out down the street, a bicycle leaning in the foreground.A census worker waits at a front door, tablet in hand.
Laptop open, a young girl smiles for the camera at the kitchen table.
An elder in a CM2 shirt laughs on the porch.Cap on, mask down, a quiet smile.
Black Father, spelled out like a dictionary entry across his shirt.
Red gloves up against the brick.Suit, tie and the van behind him with his business on the side.
A young man in a CM2 cap stands against a mural of bright color.
A wide smile against a white barn door.A woman smiles on the church steps, head wrapped in silver.
A father and his two kids take up the stone steps.
Three friends mug for the camera, Our Vote Our Community Matters on one of the shirts.Our Vote Our Community Matters, worn on a sunny afternoon.
Gloves up and eyes over them.
A masked boxer throws a jab across the ring.Sparring in the ring while a camera rolls in the corner.
He ducks under a yellow glove, dreadlocks flying.
The HOOK crew lines up in the gym.Nose to the floor at the bottom of a push-up.
A push-up and a reach across the gym floor.
The group strikes a pose against the blue gym mats.The young cooks crowd in to watch the chef's demonstration.
A pot bubbles in the foreground while the chef shows the young cooks the next step.
Apron on, a young cook stirs a pan of vegetables.Lined-up bowls and one hand pointing to what goes in next.
Tongs, greens and focus: plating in the restaurant kitchen.
A row of salads, finished one by one.The dining room fills for the dinner the students cooked.
Two young diners at a table, one looking straight into the lens.
A young photographer turns the lens back on us.Students and residents pose together during the photography session.
A golfer points out the sponsor board beside the tee.
Six golfers line up on the course in CM2 shirts.A tee shot against a sky full of clouds.
The grill master works a full rack of burgers.
An arm around a young golfer at the end of the day.Sunrise over the course before the first tee time.
A young photographer lines up her shot beside the mums.
A golfer settles into the cart for the first hole.A putt lined up on the green.
Crouched low, a golfer reads the green.
A big hug between friends on the course.Arms open under the studio lights.
An elder draws on a cigar in the lounge.
Smoke curls from a cigar as the conversation goes on.Rings, a watch and a worn leather armchair.
Afternoon light cuts through the blinds into the empty lounge.
Three women share a laugh in front of the window.Two men talk it out in the barbershop.
Heels, boots and sneakers lined up against the mural.
Arms flung wide against a painted crowd.The whole group lines up in front of the library shelves.
Mothers gather in a sunlit brick room for the conversation.
The restaurant glows through the glass on a winter night.The chef points straight at the camera from behind the bar.
A smile behind the flowers at the dinner table.
A laugh in a patterned cardigan.A certificate changes hands in front of the chalkboard wall.
Two men crack up in the middle of the speeches.
The cake arrives, candles lit.Two friends side by side at the end of the night.
I have a dream, chalked on the restaurant wall for Martin Luther King Day.
A ballfield seen from straight above, the diamond worn into the grass.Dusk settles over the city as the ballfield lights come on.
Night falls on the river, the bridge lit from end to end.
