Weird Luxury

“The developers circle like vultures, hungry to turn this untamed block into another sanitized American mall. But for now, it remains an oasis, a place that still hums with the unruly soul of the city.” Jeremiah Moss

Welcome to the Diamond District. This is a place where the phrase “we buy gold” is the standard greeting. These pictures are a meditation on the thrum of an urban neighborhood on the edge of disappearing.

One would think it’d be easy to photograph here. This is the alluring part - a public street open to all. People and inventory spill out in front of your eyes. Trays in shop windows groan with luxury that is similarly unattainable and low lying. Some akin to Legos hit with a Bedazzler; others, heritage pieces from the czars. It is a hard scrabble street with a lot of stories. And above the street, workshops and labs bend geology to their will. Think Harry Potter but hood.

47 is a both a parallel universe and an open book. There exists a poetry in the working class nature of luxury. Guided by my heart as a street photographer, I peruse sidewalks hungry for pictures. Sometimes I’m graciously invited in. Others chide me with punitive superegos; a mountain of a man once physically threatened me for photographing on the sidewalk in front of his store.

As I continue this work, I absorb the stories of the street’s hidden heart. Legacy businesses mean everything to the weft and weave of a culture. But these moms-and-pops are on the verge of vanishing. A big box store has just broken ground on the corner. The battle has begun.