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IMAGES FROM THE PROSPECT PRESS: Brooklyn Photographs of the 1980’s

For five years during the 1980’s, I documented the changing face of some of Brooklyn’s most enduring communities. As the staff photographer and editor of the Prospect Press, a local newspaper of the time, I produced an in-depth record of neighborhood life, local politics, development battles and portraits of the characters and personalities of the era.

These images now appear as if discovered in a time capsule. The newspaper they were produced for, defunct since 1987 and unsearchable on the internet, exists only in the memories of long-time Brooklynites.

They are a chronicle of old neighborhoods where people of diverse backgrounds lived side by side, families passing their turf down to the next generation. But as the brownstone revival took hold, row houses and tenements on formerly neglected blocks suddenly became hot properties. For many, the pressure of change was too strong. From the front lines of that scene, I was able to connect with many of the ethnic and social groups that staked a claim to this part of the city and who were being pushed out by changes that are still occurring today.