Artist Statement
My work along Kensington Avenue is about telling the untold stories of those who struggle to survive in Philadelphia’s most infamous neighborhood. Prostitution, drug addiction and violence mark the lives of many of the residents I photograph. Through photography and first person narratives of my subjects, I seek a raw intensity in my work that I hope will shed light on the personal battles that make up this complicated and often misunderstood way of life.
Process Statement
Working with a 4x5 view camera, I have deliberately chosen a slow photographic process in order to slow down the rapid speed of life along Kensington Avenue. The camera itself is a beacon and often attracts subjects. I show photographs to people I meet on the street and talk openly about the project. It’s only after I’ve gotten to know someone that I am able to make their picture. The process is a collaboration and requires that my subject be a willing participant.
Jeffrey Stockbridge graduated from Drexel University with a BS in Photography in 2005. His work has been included in exhibitions at The National Portrait Gallery London, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Delaware Art Museum, The Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts, The Wapping Project Bankside and The Print Center. In 2010, Stockbridge was nominated for the Taylor-Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize and he was recently shortlisted for both the Lange-Taylor Prize and the Center For Documentary Studies First Book Prize. Stockbridge is a recipient of a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Grant, an Independence Foundation Fellowship and a CFEVA Fellowship. His work has been featured in publications such as The Rust Belt Rising Almanac, The Telegraph UK, The Daily Mail, Time Magazine, Vignette Magazine, Feature Shoot and SiouxWIRE.
Stockbridge shoots film with a 4x5 camera and produces large-format inkjet prints at his studio in Philadelphia. For the last 5 years, Stockbridge has been working on a series titled Kensington Blues. Photographing along Kensington Avenue in North Philadelphia, Stockbridge turns his camera on the residents of a neighborhood overcome by drug addiction, prostitution and violent crime. With an audio recorder and journal in hand, Stockbridge encourages his subjects to tell their own stories. His photographs and audio recordings are then paired together on his blog kensingtonblues.com.
How to use our image viewer
Click on any of the thumbnail images to launch the viewer. You can then navigate forward and backward within the portfolio by clicking the left or right side of the enlarged image. Click the add to collection checkbox to automatically add an image to your collection. Image tags or search engine keywords appear below the collections' checkbox and each word or phrase is a link to potentially more image matches.
linkedin