Personal Ties

Photographing strangers on the street is like having an epic novel read aloud to you, only it’s real. You’re connected. You’re involved. And you carry every piece of it with you from then on.” —Amy Touchette

A resident of New York City since 1997, Amy Touchette started photographing people in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, soon after moving to the neighborhood in 2015. Perhaps best known for being the childhood home of rapper Jay-Z and the setting of Spike Lee’s film Do the Right Thing, what struck Touchette most about Bed-Stuy was its strong sense of community and the relationships that underpin it. Using a Rolleiflex film camera, friends, family members, and couples often caught her eye.

“Amy Touchette represents the new generation of documentary photographers who are contributing to preserving a very important history and culture in this 21st century. Arming herself with a camera and a compassionate heart, she photographed ordinary people in her Bedford-Stuyvesant community, creating intimate portraits of personal ties, kinship, and individuality that are now frozen moments in time.”
                                                                                                        —Jamel Shabazz, photographer

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