Photographed three years after the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy, these Coney Island gardens, tended by the local Puerto Rican community, embody resilience and cultural pride. As a person of Puerto Rican descent raised in Southern California where there is no cohesive Puerto Rican community, encountering this abundance of Boricua identity on my first trip to NYC was a revelation.
Blending color documentary photography with cultural storytelling, the work highlights how community labor and migration histories shape the landscape of Brooklyn’s seaside borough. Guitars, painted animals, and other handmade objects turn the garden into a small world of its own, reflecting the creativity of the people who care for it.
Blending color documentary photography with cultural storytelling, the work highlights how community labor and migration histories shape the landscape of Brooklyn’s seaside borough. Guitars, painted animals, and other handmade objects turn the garden into a small world of its own, reflecting the creativity of the people who care for it.
