Dustin Chambers
Dustin Chambers Photography
Tanya passes a crack pipe to a visiting friend who goes by the name Caruso. Photo made for a personal project in Atlanta, GA. My entrance into this story started in darker corners of the area, particularly with the two individuals in the photo, Tanya and Caruso. August 2015. This photo is from a personal project examining life in a duo of particularly forgotten historic black neighborhoods, Vine City and English Avenue, which fall directly west of Atlanta's Downtown. The broad arc of the piece looks at the neighborhood's change for better and worse as a brand new football stadium is erected directly next to another football stadium, the original structure to geographically cut off the community's residents from critical resources – creating food deserts and community isolation. This second commercial structure brings with it the potential for dangerously fast gentrification. The individuals in the photo, Tanya and Caruso, were two of the first people I met in the community. Here, Tanya passes a crack pipe through a window to Caruso. Since that day, I've established more relationships throughout the neighborhoods – spending time in churches, in homes, at celebrations – with the hope of capturing the full story – joyful and woeful – of a community's past, present, and future.
