Work in Rochester
Work in Rochester is a series of 365 photographs shot one each day throughout 2011 of those working in the city of Rochester, New York to create a field guide to the people who collectively create our local economy. Through photographs and conversations with workers, I developed a sense of the connected fiber of the city’s economic life.
Rochestrians will find many familiar faces among the photographs that run the gamut of the city from senators to bankers, to barkeeps and construction workers, and on to those living on the margins of the economy. Those unfamiliar with the place will certainly find familiar occupations in what is effectively now a time capsule of a Rust Belt city’s economic life. Beyond that, it is the summation of a year of my life spent doing what I love.
The series was shown in its entirety at Rochester Contemporary in April 2012.
The book of the series is available here from Amazon.
Below are a few highlights from each month of the series.
January 18
Ulysses and crew work in the dark and cold just after midnight, removing the skyway between the exposed shell of Midtown Plaza and the Xerox Tower.
January 29
Mike works the guidelines from the ground to direct the machine deck into place on the tower crane at Strong Hospital.
February 9
Manoel hauls a shopping cart full of scrap metal from East Avenue to the scrap yard on Portland Avenue to get paid.
February 24
Chuck follows the conversation while trying on a jacket presented by Veteran’s Advocates at the War Memorial.
February 25
Rick and Douglas shovel driveways off South Avenue for $20.
March 7
Vicki makes tinny clay televisions to sell online in her attic pottery studio in the South Wedge.
March 28
Angelo sells reptiles for a living from his shop on the corner of Winton and Main. I asked if the Jungle Carpet Python he was holding bites and he said, “Oh yeah. Everything bites.”
April 4
Reverend Michael delivers an invocation to the crowd outside Aenon Baptist Church on Genesee Street on the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
April 28
Mary Ellen has a chat with Lilly the sea lion at the Seneca Park Zoo.
May 12
David sets up the game where you throw the ping pong ball into the goldfish bowl at the Lilac Festival.
May 28
Heavenly and Mary Ann sell Gatorade and flowers from their driveway in North Winton Village.
June 10
Tom sells parking spaces on East Avenue for $20 a spot during Jazz Fest. He says that people who come to Jazz Fest don’t even blink at paying $20. He wasn’t sure he wanted me to take his picture, so I told him to just put his hands over his face.
June 24
Jody teaches kids at the Central Library how to avoid getting bitten by a dog.
July 1
Rachel waits tables at Salena’s in the Village Gate.
July 14
Greg pilots a F/A-18 Hornet for a living. Standing on the airport tarmac, he says work is busy, but he gets a flame retardant suit and a week-and-a-half paid vacation a year.
August 15
Andy tracks a raccoon through a backyard in the South Wedge.
August 26
Ginny cooks at the Greek Festival on South Avenue.
September 22
Faruk took a leap of faith, quit his job and opened his own custom jewelry shop in Village Gate several years ago. He says it is tough running the shop solo, but this year business has been better than ever.
September 26
Trudy cleans out her South Avenue clothing store Godivas as she prepares to close the business she has run for ten years. She says the community was simply unsupportive.
October 28
Lizzy sells poutine from her truck on South Avenue. On this night, she works until two or three a.m. and then heads for the public market at six in the morning. She says she likes the independence and the quality control. She likes the food.
October 29
Jeremy repairs a furnace in a Dewey Avenue basement.
November 19
Coleen pierces nipples on East Avenue. One for $40 or two for $60.
November 29
Rodney has been in the car business for 26 years, spending the last five as sales manager at the only new-car dealer in Rochester. He says the reason the dealership has thrived on University Avenue is because they have kept their scale small and constantly adapt to the changing needs of their customers.
December 8
Anne does a story from a church basement on North Chestnut Street. Like many local reporters these days, she is often sent out to cover a story without a videographer.
December 25
YaYa says he is a bit tired as he keeps the store on Emerson Street running Christmas morning.