From 1987-1991, Jeffrey Wolin made hundreds of portraits of residents of his city’s housing projects, known as “Pigeon Hill”. At the time there was much discussion about the problems of the welfare state and with crime and drug abuse and enduring poverty. Over the past five years he re-photographed over 100 individuals. The economic condition of many remains poor, while others now live solidly middle-class lives. More than a few are firmly entrenched in the criminal justice system, usually for non-violent crimes such as lack of payment of child support or drug use—America has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. Wolin’s focus is on the faces themselves paired with the earlier portraits. One can see the effects of the passing of time and the ways in which life’s experiences (good and bad) are written into these open and expressive faces.
Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website