“It’s just not a picture that people usually see,” said Oliver.

If you ask the 32-year-old, Atlanta-based photographer for one aspect of Black life that isn’t represented enough, he’ll quickly give you his answer: a sense of normalcy. It is this desire to capture the normalcy in everyday life that seems to keep this street photographer motivated.

Father And Daughter On Scooter. Photo Courtesy of Quintavious Oliver

“I think that Black life has been shown as something that’s extraordinary, and out of the norm,” said Oliver. “But I think that once we start to see the normalcy in everyday life as the thread that connects us all, there will be less of a conversation about why it’s important to show the differences in Black life as opposed to why it’s important to show that Black people are human beings. ”

Six hundred miles west, in Shreveport, Louisiana, 24-year-old street photographer Jamal Martin also spends his time, as he said, “documenting Black people.” Even though he knows his town is dangerous, what Martin sees in Shreveport is different. He sees Black people painting, drinking cocktails and spending time with their family. 

Young Kings At Football Camp. Photo Courtesy of Jamal Martin

“Me, with my camera, I have the power to say, ‘You’ve never seen these people before a day in your life, but they’re important,” said Martin.” And you see them now.’”

There is one thing Martin won’t photograph in his community, gun violence. It isn’t a part of his life and he doesn’t feel like it’s his story to tell.

“But even if I could, I don’t think I would,” said Martin. “We already get a bad rep for gun violence and drugs and hood stuff, so why would I show that? Why would I give somebody the opportunity to point and say, ‘Look, this is what yall are. This is what yall do.’”

Jamal Martin and Girlfriend Meagan Laboy. Photo Courtesy of Jamal Martin

So instead, Martin said he wants his focus to be on an aspect of normalcy he feels is missing, love.

“A lot of my feed is of me and her,” he said, referring to Meagan LaBoy, his best friend and girlfriend of two years. “That’s another thing that’s not represented, Black love in a positive light. A lot of people don’t get to see Black people having love that lasts and love that sticks. Whenever I share that with the world, our love speaks for itself. ” 

And when it comes to love, Oliver feels the same way, especially when it comes to photographing Black fathers with their children, riding scooters, and smiling.

“We’re often looked at as the aggressors, as animals,” said Oliver. “So, when I get to see a Black man smile, there’s a certain sense of peace and joy that’s there. That’s a love that I think a lot of people forget exists in our world.”

To Oliver, the balance of joy and pain in a work of art is crucial, but tells you less about what the artist finds important, and more about what the artist is experiencing internally. He also feels there’s nothing inherently wrong with leaning towards joy.

“Everyone knows that life is screwed up,” said Oliver. “I think that the most radical thing, the most anti thing you can do, is to be happy. That’s true rebellion right there.”

What Oliver wants his art to do, above all else, is make people feel seen.

“People need to be able to look in the mirror and love themselves, and fall in love with themselves.”

Neither Oliver nor Martin expect racism to end anytime soon. For now, they feel their duty to their community is to make sure that these moments aren’t lost to either ignorance or time.

The post Celebrating the Everyday Normalcy in Black Life appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

The hard times we are living in are not only a challenge for our physical health, but also our mental health. According to “Our World in Data”, 792 million people had a mental health disorder in 2017- and this was not even in the middle of a pandemic. There are studies that show how concerned mental health organizations are with the possible developments or with the aggravation of symptoms or conditions in times of quarantine and lockdown. 

Although some friends of mine are still going out and meeting other friends, I need to be extra careful because I’m part of a risk group due to a precondition and autoimmune systemic disease called Lupus. To be stuck, in my case is not only an act of solidarity with my grandparents or my stepfather, it is a matter of survival. Because the outside has become something so abstract and far away, I chose the pictures to be black and white, while the inside, which is my reality, is colorful. 

I’ve been stuck since March 10. When I first arrived in Rio, I needed to be in complete isolation in my room for 14 days. When I finally went out of my room, I felt the relief of being capable of walking around the house or just being able to touch things that other people touch. However, I still feel stuck, and I believe everyone else does too. You feel stuck at home, stuck in the news  you are stuck inside your building, your car and, most of all, stuck wanting to get out, to just leave and breathe some fresh air (without masks, will that ever be possible again?) 

I feel stuck, but I want to feel free again. I want to look at a view and be there if I want to, I want to hug my grandparents again, I want my grandma to be able to go to the mall again, I want to go to a nice restaurant, have some wine and eat. I want to not fear life. 

Stuck in the news is also stuck. Andrea (50) reads the news in times of pandemic. April 29, 2020. Photo by Marina Guimarães

Room-stuck day 10. My mom, Andrea (50) had to bring me food so that I wouldn’t need to touch objects in common areas inside my house (or even breathe the same air). April 1, 2020. Photo by Marina Guimarães

The new normal: masks hang to dry after walking the dog. Rio de Janeiro, 2020. April 23, 2020. Photo by Marina Guimarães

Pedro (13) has also been quarantined for a long time. For a young soccer player, to stay stuck at home is big sacrifice. April 8, 2020. Photo by Marina Guimarães

Stuck with the view of the other side of the building. April 29, 2020. Photo by Marina Guimarães

From inside the building to the street in Rio de Janeiro. May 1, 2020. Photo by Marina Guimarães

Since the start of the pandemic Thereza (78) hasn’t been out to the mall with her caregivers for being part of the higher risk group. May 1, 2020. Photo by Marina Guimarães

Remote work is one of the biggest challenges during quarantine. It is too easy to just distract by all of the reasons you are stuck in the first place. April 8, 2020. Photo by Marina Guimarães

Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas separated by a few miles and a net. May 1, 2020. Photo by Marina Guimarães

When stuck at home, Andrea (50) has to do something she hasn’t in a while: clean the house. April 8, 2020. Photo by Marina Guimarães

Julio (64) admires the beautiful landscape of the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas through his bedroom window. April 1, 2020. Photo by Marina Guimarães

Net blocks the view of Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas in Rio de Janeiro. May 1, 2020. Photo by Marina Guimarães

The view from Christ the Redemeer from the Garage. Rio de Janeiro, 2020. May 1 2020. Photo by Marina Guimarães

This is a project of Lori Grinker’s NYU graduate photojournalism class.

The post Stuck: Life under quarantine in Rio de Janeiro appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

Under normal circumstances, spring season meant parks loaded with tourists and residents catching up with vitamin D, streets filled with pedestrians rushing to work or a rooftop event, and long lines of people waiting to get seated for brunch.

Now, in the midst of spring, parks are deserted and the few people at them are locals, streets have only a few pedestrians that don’t seem to be in a rush to get anywhere (except for healthcare and essential workers), and the only long lines are to enter the grocery stores.

The city that never sleeps is dormant.

Sunset at the Vessel in Hudson Yards, April 22, 2020. Photo by Maria Abreu

Army soldiers and a civilian walking around Hudson Yards, April 22, 2020. Photo by Maria Abreu

A guitarist at Central Park’s Bethesda Terrace, April 23, 2020. Photo by Maria Abreu

Fort Tryon Park during a nice spring afternoon, April 4, 2020. Photo by Maria Abreu

A view from Fort Tryon Park of the George Washington Bridge, April 4 2020. Photo by Maria Abreu

Bryant Park on a Saturday at 5:30pm, April 23, 2020. Photo by Maria Abreu

A lot of grass at Bryant Park, but nowhere to lay down. Due to COVID-19, the grass is off limits to prevent social interaction, April 23, 2020. Photo by Maria Abreu

This is a project of Lori Grinker’s NYU graduate photojournalism class.

The post New York’s Emptiness appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

Everyone assumed these new routines would be temporary––but what does temporary mean in a pandemic?

These pictures explore and exist in this limbo of time––joyful and memorable, but occasionally lonely and grim.

Time forcefully spent at home exacerbates experiences, making dull moments remarkable events: a phone call, opening a bottle of whiskey, looking at a mirror without reason. Everything could happen at the same time, the same day; then you realize it’s been weeks, your routine has become a ritual, and you haven’t been out of the house for months.

Mom’s bed, early in the morning.
Photo Guillermo Manning

Sofia working late at night while it rains.
Photo Guillermo Manning

Grandmother at her home.
Photo Guillermo Manning

Mom at home.
Photo Guillermo Manning

Grandmother having dinner and opening a bottle of whiskey. Photo Guillermo Manning

Mom working at home.
Photo Guillermo Manning

Mom visiting my grandmother for the first time in weeks.
Photo Guillermo Manning

Mom on the phone while Bombay listens.
Photo Guillermo Manning

Paulina riding a bike.
Photo Guillermo Manning

A picture of Paulina when she was four.
Photo Guillermo Manning

Grandmother greeting mom.
Photo Guillermo Manning

This is a project of  Lori Grinker’s  NYU graduate photojournalism class.

The post What Temporary Means: Portraits of family at home appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

As people adjust to life at home, with the spread of the Coronavirus, the photographer took it upon herself to document the lives of families around her.  She calls the project, “Families at a Distance”.

“I want [the photos] to be real and honest,” she said. “But then I also felt like there almost is a little excitement or a strange way that people are finding this happiness and embracing the fact that everybody’s finally having to be together.”

Nydia’s kids. Photo  by Andrea Cipriani Mecchi

Yet the photographs evoke a historical sense, with their black and white tone and seemingly mundane subject matter. This was not by chance, but by design. Mecchi took inspiration from works such the Farm Security Administration (FSA) style photos, of the great depression era, when the government commissioned a group of photographers to document life in rural America. Of these, Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother is perhaps the most recognizable.

Jeb, Gena and their children, Gigi and Malachy. Photo by Andrea Cipriani Mecchi

 “They brought these images back to Washington. And it’s what actually helped shape some of the support that the government then offered the people out West,” Mecchi said. “I really wanted it to feel and sort of mimic, or at least feel consistent with documentary images of the past. There’s this subtle like ‘oh, we’ve kind of been here before or maybe we’re on the verge of this again’.”

Sofia and her father, Chris  cleans the glass door of their Bella Vista home. Photo by Andrea Cipriani Mecchi

Everyone is adapting to new times. And this project marks a pivotal moment in the artist’s own life and career.

For years, Mecchi kept her photography on the sidelines, focusing most of her attention on raising two children. They have now grown up, and at the end of last year, she decided to reshift her focus back to photography. 

“I had loaded my schedule starting in February, and I had some really great projects that I was working on,” she said. “ I’ve always walked the line between doing commercial work and documentary work.”

Anna and Rodney  and their  family in the window. of their South Philly home. Photo by Andrea Cipriani Mecchi

But the recent developments in the coronavirus outbreak derailed her plans.

“I ended up losing all my work pretty much once this hit. I started getting emails and calls,” she said. “I was going out to California for a project that was cancelled. I worked for a client that has a national preschool — that was put on hold. I had all of these jobs and suddenly people are working remotely, and obviously I can’t go in and be face to face.”

This took a toll on her.

“I have to be honest, I was pretty much super depressed for a few days,” she said. 

Then one day a friend of hers, who is also an artist, challenged her to photograph people “stuck in their homes”. And so a new project was born. Mecchi’s friend and her family became the first subjects, and the initial results immediately struck her.

Stacey and Mengistu with their family in Bella Vista. Photo by Andrea Cipriani Mecchi

“They weren’t really sad or depressing or feeling like everybody’s struggling and unhappy, which we all are,” she said. “I kind of sat with it for a bit and tried to figure out why, you know, because internally my own kids are struggling with not being able to interact with their friends.”

Through her lense, Mecchi saw a sense of duality in people’s spirits.

“I feel like people are in survival mode,” she said. “But also everybody right now is embracing this. I do feel like there is a little bit of a pause and everybody is collectively holding their breaths. It sort of allows everybody — the parents, as well — to kind of just be in the moment and realize that there’s also a little bit of a gift at this time, where we really aren’t racing places”

Gigi leaps. Photo by Andrea Cipriani Mecchi

According to the artist, there’s a stark contrast in how different age groups have reacted. Adults are more anxious, while older people seem to “have a little bit more wisdom”. And the kids, while frustrated, easily switch gears to having fun — especially when someone new shows up close to their house, to photograph the family.

After shooting some more of her own friends, Mecchi moved on to people she saw while out on the street to run errands. She makes sure to keep a safe distance from everyone, often shooting them across the street with longer lenses. That’s been made possible also because of the layout of residential neighborhoods in Philadelphia, which has a great amount of row homes, as opposed to high rise buildings.

Levi,6, puts his feet up. Photo by Andrea Cipriani Mecchi

The project reached a new level after Mecchi posted about it on social media.

“It was crazy how suddenly I went from, ‘oh my god, I’m not going to work for months’ to my phone blew up after I posted a few images on Instagram like never before with people saying, ‘Oh, my God, I love this, can you come shoot my family?’”

She started accepting appointments to photograph people who reach out, welcoming donations in exchange for the family portraits.

“I need to make money, I need to figure something out to keep my family afloat right now and contribute,” she said. “But at the same time, I feel like this has kind of become bigger than that.”

Lu with her dog  on her South Philly stoop. Photo by Andrea Cipriani Mecchi

Moving forward, she wants to make sure the photos she takes are representative of a diverse group of people.

“I want the project to really represent everyone. All socio-economic [status] people and people whose families don’t look like the traditional family,” she said. “When I ask someone to let me photograph [them], I don’t ask for a donation. I definitely am wanting to document things for myself and make it a comprehensive body of work.”

Chris, Carolina and their daughter, Sofia. Photo by Andrea Cipriani Mecchi

The project has some very obvious physical limitations, seeing as Mecchi cannot walk into people’s homes, being confined to photographing them from the outside looking in. In some of the photos, kids are pressing their faces against the windows, making silly faces, in others the whole family calmly stands together in the front steps. These restrictions have presented both a challenge and an opportunity.

“To a certain extent the boundaries are actually allowing me to sort of stay focused,” Mecchi said. “I’m not searching for the right angle in the house. It really ends up becoming the spirit, in a sense, of the family.”

The post Philadelphia photographer captures family life during the coronavirus pandemic appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

Sikh leaders say they do not have it easy. They face bigotry and many other forms of discrimination, but the optimism and hope the community shares is on display in the photo exhibition, Sikh: Turban & Identity.

Presented by the Sikh Coalition, whose mission is to fight bigotry aimed at this South Asian religion. The Soho pop-up exhibit features 40 men and women in turbans and was photographed by British photographers, Amit and Naroop.

One of the photography subjects, Raghuvinder Singh, was born in India and has lived in New Jersey for the last decade with his wife and two children. In the photo, his smile is of pure happiness. But his life was not as joyful as he looks in the photo. Four years ago, a gunman walked into the Sikh Gurdwara (Sikh house of worship) in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, killing six Sikhs and injuring several including Raghuvinder’s father, Baba Punjab Singh, who was left paralyzed and unable to speak. He e can only communicate by blinking.

Lathan Dennis-Singh, aerospace engineer of Fairfax, Virginia, was also photographed for the exhibit, He became homeless at 13 and came to the United States in 1967 on a scholarship to study at the University of Michigan. It is at college where he became involved with and finally adopted Sikhism. He faced discrimination at the workplace.

“There was no group like the Sikh Coalition that could come forward and stand for me,” he said. “Today, it’s a little bit different. There are more laws to protect the victims of Sikh discrimination, bullying, and hate crimes. This is why the exhibition is so important. It can reach the wider society.”

With a spirit of Chardi Kala (eternal optimism) in mind, he believed that the power of love, the kindness to help others, and public awareness could eventually combat the hate Sikhs were facing.

Growing up in a small town of North Carolina, Jagmeet Singh, now the Media and Communications Manager at the Sikh Coalition, said that he had experienced bullying as a child because of his long hair, turban and beard.

He joined the Sikh Coalition last year and has been using his communication and media skills to work for Sikhs’ civil rights.

“Besides legal aid that we provide for Sikh individuals experiencing harassment, discrimination, and violence, we also help to change policies so that there is less systematic discrimination,” he said. “We work to educate the public about Sikhism. We are also trying to track where the violence against Sikhs is happening. Soft discrimination is also included, like you walk down the street, and someone calls you a terrorist. But that’s much harder to track.”

Satjeet Kaur, the development and communications director for the Sikh Colaition believes education is the key to resolve their problems. The public should not only be told what the Sikh faith is, but also be able to find similarities over differences and to have a positive association through story sharing.

“When you see the turban and beard, there’s nothing to fear,” said Kaur. “Our vision is that when you walk through this photo exhibition, you can connect with people on a very basic human level. Instead of just seeing an image of person with turban and beard, I saw somebody that was a survivor; I saw somebody that was resilient; I saw somebody that has the best smile I’ve ever seen. And that’s what we want people to walk away with.”

The exhibit closes on Sunday.

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As an epicenter of trade and commerce, it is not uncommon to see shipping containers on the periphery of New York City. It is odd, however, to see several dozen of them used as a makeshift art gallery like the one currently arranged at Brooklyn Bridge Park.

United Photo Industries, a New York based art organization, is the impetus behind the maze-like structure of shipping containers and while the set up may appear haphazard at first glance, it is anything but that. It is Photoville, the largest annual photographic event in New York City.

Photoville challenges the public’s perception of art by organizing shipping containers to function as gallery spaces in which curated works by an array of photographers and photojournalists are displayed. As a free event that is open to the public, the untraditional space liberates the viewers from expectations often associated with museums and brick and mortar galleries.

“I live in the neighborhood so I’m familiar with the space here and there’s a lot of containers that are for industrial purposes,” said Ananda Khan, 33,a Photoville attendee yesterday. “It’s nice to see it fit in with the neighborhood and create a whole new ‘suspended from reality’ space.”

Khan’s fashion photographer friend, Adrianna Favero, brought her to Photoville to not only explore the images, but to get in tune with the political and social climate of photojournalism.

“All of these are things that you don’t think about in your regular life,” said Favero of the themed installations showcasing issues like police brutality and war,.

Outside of one of the many containers stood Taylor Gamble, a representative of the New York New Abolitionists ready to provide information to the public on the effects of human trafficking. The New York New Abolitionists is an awareness campaign spearheaded by the New York State Anti-Trafficking Coalition, which is comprised of roughly 150 organizations, dedicated to raising awareness of human trafficking issues.

“Most people don’t realize that it’s something that happens all around us even in our city,” said Gamble.

The Coalition hired a photographer to capture portraits of various survivors, politicians, and even celebrities that are standing up and taking steps to help those affected by human trafficking.

“This is a great way to get the general public to notice our thinking about it and it’s given us a good chance to have conversations with people who had never thought about the issue before,” said Gamble..

This year marks Photoville’s fourth annual event which runs for two consecutive weekends in mid-September. It has gained traction since its inception having spread among the photography community even drawing former visitors to exhibit their work, such as photojournalist Rita Leistner who made her way from Toronto, Canada.

Leistner’s shipping container showcased photographs that she took on a smartphone while embedded with U.S. Marines in Afghanistan in 2011. Leistner was part of an experimental project titled Basetrack, which was an initiative to cover the war in Afghanistan using solely social media and smartphones.

Photojournalist Rita Leistner pauses for a moment at Photoville outside of a shipping container that showcases the work she photographed entirely on her smart phone while embedded with U.S. Marines in Afghanistan in 2011. Photo by Elizabeth Arakelian

In an increasingly digital world critics have wondered about the future of photography’s role now that the masses have become self-appointed photographers by virtue of their phones. According to Leistner the advent of phone photography does not degrade photojournalism or photography as an industry, but rather  “raises the bar higher particularly in terms of how we understand photography and what it can evoke.”

Judging by the thousands of people filing in and out of the shipping containers at Photoville over the past two weekends, it is clear people are still interested in glancing up from their phones to enjoy the physical photographs before them.

“Photoville, as a physical space that contains both material object images and people, is the joining point of these things and the fact that more than 70,000 people came through last year… to me that is evidence that my optimism about the future of photography is justified,” said Leistner.

The post Photoville harmonizes people, their phones, and photography appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

by Christina Dun

Lined up along the Brooklyn Bridge Park waterfront more than 60 storage containers were scattered like giant Lego pieces begging to be stacked. From the outside, they looked like your typical large-scale metal shipping boxes, but they were far from hollow. Inside of them was a photo festival called Photoville, a one-of-a-kind photography festival that uses repurposed transport containers to house installations, exhibits and seminars, showcasing a wide range of artists.

It opened up to the public yesterday and will run for 11 days. Inside—and surrounding— the 60-plus containers are works by more than 400 photographers.

“Weirdly enough, shipping containers make for a really good and concise photo venue,“ said Daniel Ehrenworth, 36, who was in town from Toronto and stopped by to check it out. .

Photoville is the brainchild of United Photo Industries, which was founded in 2011 by Sam Barzilay, Dave Shelley and Laura Roumanos. This year, they partnered with Smorgasburg and Brooklyn Brewery for a village Beer Garden, along with Narratively for a packed itinerary of visual storytelling events, truly hosting a creative-people’s paradise.

Founders of United Photo Industries Sam Barzilay (left), Dave Shelley (center) and Laura Roumanos (right) make opening speeches at Photoville. a photo exhibit in Brooklyn. Photo credit: Christina Dun

“It was a really lovely event,” said Ehrenworth. “As opposed to being in booths, the shipping containers were like a whole bunch of small galleries that really held the work very nicely. That’s what I’m going to remember the most.”

The concept of Photoville is unique in the sense that they think outside of the box by taking viewers right back in. The containers burst with life, with top-notch quality images ranging anywhere from intricate portraits to exquisite landscapes.

“We wanted to provide a platform for artists to show their work and get noticed,” said Roumanos. “And hopefully conversations will start.”

Photoville itself began as a small project and has gained attention worldwide. It has now grown to be the largest photographic event in New York City. Photoville kicked off with an opening night celebration featuring the screening of a collection of Brooklyn-based photographs. “We Live In Brooklyn, Baby” was curated by New York-based photographer Jamel Shabazz.

“We Live In Brooklyn, Baby” curator, Jamel Shabazz at Photoville, a photo exhibit in Brooklyn. Photo credit: Christina Dun

The original compilation was viewed earlier this year in Poland at Lodz Photofestivval, but yesterday marked the debut of its extended version on home soil.

Shabazz, 54, has been documenting the streets and characters of Brooklyn since 1975. He worked with the Photoville team to bring together some of the city’s most talented photographers, both established and up-and-coming.

“I immediately took on the challenge,” Shabazz said. “It gave me the opportunity to bring artists together and perhaps show the old Brooklyn, and even show the changes inside Brooklyn.And give people a better understanding of this wonderful borough.”

The showcase included more than 40 local photographers and the images flashed onscreen one after the other to a soundtrack of Brooklyn-inspired tracks, spun live by local DJs Chris Devlin and Prince Klassen.

“We wanted to include the whole of Brooklyn to the best of our ability and we didn’t want to leave anybody out,” said Shabazz. “We started at the Brooklyn Bridge and just tried to document all the communities that we could. And surprisingly, everyone answered the call.”

For Shabazz, Brooklyn has changed a lot over the years and it’s important to acknowledge it.

“The urban landscape has changed drastically, to the point where I don’t even know the Brooklyn I once knew,” he said. “There are so many new buildings being produced constantly and I get lost in this city, where I never used to get lost.”

“We Live In Brooklyn, Baby” was just the beginning. Last year, Photoville brought out 58,000 visitors and an even higher volume is expected this year.

“It’s all about communities coming together and that’s exactly what Photoville is,” said Roumanos.

The post Photo show in storage containers opens in Brooklyn appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

Greg Spielberg and Craig Warga admire a photo of a young couple on a ferris wheel. Photo by Kait Richmond.

Selected as some of the year’s best photojournalism, pictures that captured the major and minor events of last year are on display at the Openhouse Gallery in NoHo, as part of the New York Press Photographers Association’s annual exhibit, The Year in Pictures 2010.

Photojournalist Craig Warga, 36, from Jackson Heights, Queens, looked at a group of pictures taken in Haiti last year, after the earthquake which ravaged the country and reflected on the nature of his profession.

“Photojournalism is a funny thing,” said Craig Warga. “Good work can sometimes come from horrible things.”

The exhibit showcases the best pictures from 2010, taken by press photographers in the New York Metro area. From 2,000 entries, a panel selected 200 pictures to be shown.

“I think it was a pretty tight contest,” Warga said. “There was big news last year that produced some interesting photojournalism.”

Many of the photos were of the Haitian earthquake. Warga, who works for the New York Daily News, said he was there three months after the earthquake as the country attempted to pick up the pieces and return to normal.

He photographed a cockfight, an assignment he called “brutal,” but captured a significant part of Haiti’s culture, “like a baseball game.” The Haitians, he said, were excited to show off their pastime and gave him a front row seat. His photos from the experience are featured in the exhibit.

While the Year in Pictures has a heavy focus on 2010’s biggest news stories, it also concentrates on life in New York City. Aristide Economopoulos, one of the most featured photojournalists in the show, photographed a cab driver parked next to a tourist bus. The cab is overtaken by the images on the bus of the Statue of Liberty and the American flag.

There are many New York Yankees photos, including one of Derek Jeter excitedly leading the team to the field. Another photo shows New York Mets player Ike Davis upside-down as he goes over a railing trying to catch a foul ball.

A favorite of Openhouse Gallery employee Anna Pankevich, 17, of the Upper West Side, is an elated Phillip Jackson Benson just after he knocked out his opponent at a boxing match at the BB King Blues Club and Grill in Times Square.

“There’s just so much emotion and happiness,” Pankevich said.

The big, white gallery was desolate on yesterday, but Director of Content, Greg Spielberg, 30 of the Lower East Side, said there aren’t a lot of visitors during the week. He said a lot more people will stop in over the weekend, a typical city trend.

Warga said he hopes that the exhibit can raise “a couple thousand” for the Chris Hondros Fund. The NYPPA is collecting donations in honor of Hondros who was killed in April while on assignment in Libya. The money raised will go towards supporting young photojournalists.

Warga knew Hondros and said that his death was a huge blow to the photojournalism community.

“If I had to choose one guy to represent all photojournalists, it would be him,” Warga said.

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