Alphabet City es un foto-reportaje de Geoffrey Biddle en el que documentó sus visitas a finales de los 70s (completando la serie con una vuelta al barrio a finales de los 80s) a la comunidad puertorriqueña del Lower East Side de Manhattan (Nueva York, Estados Unidos), que ha sido durante largo tiempo una zona muy castigada por el desempleo así como posiblemente el mayor centro de venta de heroína del mundo. La motivación del fotógrafo era dar voz (grabando numerosas horas de conversación con los protagonistas) e imagen a los olvidados, pero las fotografías fueron desestimadas por varios editores que no aceptaban el trabajo por falta de interés en el tema o por considerarlo depresivo, hasta que fue publicado por la Universidad de California en 1992 en forma de libro tras ganar en 1987 un premio de la Escuela de Periodismo de Missouri. Un par de estas fotografías pueden ser familiares para algunos como portada del disco 'Essence Ordinaire' de la banda francesa Zebda o del segundo volumen de la serie Shaolin Soul (buenísimas recopilaciones de canciones de soul que habían servido para los sampleos que integraban la música de los raperos Wu-Tang Clan).
Alphabet City is a photo-story by Geoffrey Biddle in which he documented his visits in the late '70s (completing the series with a return to the neighborhood in the late '80s) to the Puerto Rican community of the Lower East Side in Manhattan (New York, USA), which has been one of the areas with higher unemployment and supposedly the largest heroin market in the world. The motivation of the photographer was giving voice (recording many hours of conversation with the neighbours) and image to the forgotten, but the pictures were rejected by several publishers who did not accept the series due to lack of interest in the subject or by calling it depressive, until it was published as a book by the University of California in 1992 after earning in 1987 an award from the Missouri School of Journalism. A couple of these pictures may be familiar to some as the album cover for 'Essence Ordinaire' by French band Zebda or for the second volume of the Shaolin Soul series (fantastic compilations of soul classics that were used for samples in the music by the famous Wu-Tang Clan rap combo).
Alphabet City is a photo-story by Geoffrey Biddle in which he documented his visits in the late '70s (completing the series with a return to the neighborhood in the late '80s) to the Puerto Rican community of the Lower East Side in Manhattan (New York, USA), which has been one of the areas with higher unemployment and supposedly the largest heroin market in the world. The motivation of the photographer was giving voice (recording many hours of conversation with the neighbours) and image to the forgotten, but the pictures were rejected by several publishers who did not accept the series due to lack of interest in the subject or by calling it depressive, until it was published as a book by the University of California in 1992 after earning in 1987 an award from the Missouri School of Journalism. A couple of these pictures may be familiar to some as the album cover for 'Essence Ordinaire' by French band Zebda or for the second volume of the Shaolin Soul series (fantastic compilations of soul classics that were used for samples in the music by the famous Wu-Tang Clan rap combo).
