Burroughs Lamar

 In 2008, I became interested in photography on serious level because of what was unabatedly transforming Harlem, and the attending palpable fear that gentrification would displace the most storied black community in the United States.  Harlem is where I was born and have spent the majority of my life and still make it my home. So, out of this circumstance, I decided to do something about it rather than watch it happen.    

There was one caveat that I imposed upon myself: if these people were to allow me into their lives (some personal), I would not betray their trust by profiting financially from using their images.  

The project grew with each person, business, activity, event, or happening I chanced upon.  The next phase was strategic: I decided to use my relationships with everyone I knew in Harlem who could connect me with someone or something I wanted to document.  Over 12 years later, I have amassed easily over 70,000 images, (that I continue to add to)

In the project’s infancy, prior to having a conversation with now deceased, Dr, Manning Marable, a scholar at Columbia University, the import of what I have achieved from an anthropological and historical framework, was hitherto unknown to me.   my photographs are instrumental towards addressing negative stereotypes of black Americans that needed to be challenged.  Hence, the work augments the central thrust of the Black Lives Matter movement, which is black people in the United States are treated unequally and current wrongs need to be addressed.