Close friends on Liberty Sytreet

What drew me to Newburgh in the first place was the beauty of the people and the remnants of the fine architectural heritage.

Lilith

Caroline came home one day having seen a photograph of an unusual 13 year-old. She also had an unusual name—Lilith. Not long after, we traveled north and I photographed her. Her mother wanted to cut her hair but her daughter would not hear of it.

Lilith's aunt made her skirt and I took the picture against the window of a barn that they are going to renovate for a studio. Lilith is a pianist. She recently played at her cousin's wedding. She draws and paints and loves to read books. "Books equal life," she told her mother. And on a visit to a local university it was the library she wanted to see most.

              Portrait by Lilith of her mother. 

"Newburgh: Beauty and Tragedy" screening at Atlas Studios in Newburgh

Twenty-two years ago I crossed the Hudson River from my home in Garrison, NY and drove into Newburgh for the first time.All around me were very young, very beautiful men and women. I asked a shirtless youth if I might take his picture.”No,” he said, “and I should get back into your car and go home.

I tried again a few days later and never had another serious rebuff. I had everything going for me, I thought, I speak funny and I am too old to be a cop.”

Newburgh is the once prosperous city, renowned for its industrial output and resplendent Victorian architecture. Beginning in the early 1960 the markets fell away, urban renewal came and 1,300 buidings were destroyed but never rebuilt. Newburgh has had many false starts to rebuild and restore the city.

Today, sixty-five years on, the city is still a place of crumbling buildings, crime and violence. Will this present city government succeed where all the others have failed? In 2012 a book of my portraits was published, together with an exhibition of mural size prints on the wall of the Ritz theater. (It is still up.)

Then came the film. After listening to stories of imprisonment, teenage parenthood, drug addiction, unemployment, poverty, violence and corruption I began on my own to record encounters with citizens in the street.

The film is an essay. It is a one sided account of the life of the residents of downtown Newburgh. The film offers no conclusions, no tales of redemption or magic solutions to unemployment, and Newburgh's future is left hanging. No one in authority, either in the police or government, is given a speaking part in this film. This was deliberate, I wanted to hear and see only the people I was drawn to.

There is Toni Rose, a single mother with three children. Now 33, she tells us how Newburgh is becoming a place only for those with money. All that is being done to reshape Newburgh, she believes, is to benefit newcomers who can afford the rapidly rising rents.
“Nobody cares about us. We’re nothing to them,” she says, referring to the city councilors and landlords.

I came across subjects and opinions in unexpected and obscure places.  I was assisted by a crew of three local, young people, whom I took on as paid apprentices and instructed them in camera and sound techniques. No professional crew was employed.

Some of my original portraits are blended into the film. Many unstated events and feelings come out through these portraits. There is an underlying sadness in the film but also great beauty, warmth, grace and hope.


Newburgh: Beauty and Tragedy                                        
A film directed by Dmitri Kasterine
Produced by Caroline Kasterine

Website which includes trailer: www.newburghbeautyandtragedy.com

Firm friends

A loving couple I met by chance one day when I was visiting my friend Purvis at his store
Hip Hop Heaven on Liberty Street in Newburgh, NY. They spoke so gently about having known each other for a long time.

Newburgh: Beauty and Tragedy screening

The screening of my film Newburgh: Beauty and Tragedy will be held on November 3rd in
Atlas Studios, 11 Spring Street, Newburgh, NY 12550 at 6:00 p.m. Admission free.

Jean Anouilh

As I am stuck over whom or what to photograph at the moment I have been looking through my old pictures and posting anything that catches my eye. Depending on your age and interest in the theater you may know who this man is. Others will assume that he is a homeless man sitting on a wall. This is not likely when I tell you it was taken in Lausanne, Switzerland in the mid 1970 when, as now, I believe, the homelessness in Lausanne is negligible.

I do remember though being driven mad by the woman journalist I was with for babbling non stop all day. I could stand it no longer at dinner after the shoot and told her so. She was quite put out and complained about me to a close mutual friend when we got back to England. He asked her how we got on. She said I was no fun at all and, "Why wouldn't he go to a night club with me?"   

Martin and Kingsley Amis, writers

I arrived, I took the photograph, and I left. So often that happened. Taking somebody's picture seldom constitutes an introduction or meeting them. When a friend asks, "Oh, did you meet them?" I understand what they mean and reply, "No, I went there and I photographed them."

If you are asked to stay for a drink I guess you can then say you met them.

Ballet Student, Newburgh, NY

No need to make this into black and white. Took a little yellow out and... no this blog is not going to become a technical bore. Sometimes I don't know what to say about a picture so I am tempted to write something technical. 

An armful at Botanica, Red Hook, Brooklyn, NY

A waitress at Botanica, Red Hook, Brooklyn, NY, our favourite bar. We haven't been there for ages only because it is a trek from Garrison, NY. Is it still as wonderful? With the owner (still?), Daniel Preston involved with manufacturing drones for commercial use, and distilling chocolate and cacao-laced rum and liqueurs, does he find time to see that it runs like it did when he was there every night? We must visit again although I know we shall miss his shining mind if he is not there.

Couple on Liberty St , Newburgh, NY

There are times when I can't look at another color photograph. We are at this moment drowning in color photography. Here was another and I thought God save us from it. God did—via the Photoshop life jacket. I feel like converting everything to B&W, even corny old sepia would be alright. This lovely couple deserve not to be the center of a rant about the horrors of present day color photography but gorgeous color is stifling us and we have forgotten the importance of the subject. Look at Lewis Hine, look at Clifford Coffin.