One Word

These are a collection of street portraits that I made on Sunday, January 19, 2009, two days before the inauguration of President Barack Obama. I went to the historically African-American U Street/Shaw neighborhood in Washington D.C. and asked people on the street to think of one word that describes what Barack Obama’s inauguration meant to them without using the word “Change.” Since “Change” was Obama’s slogan for much of his campaign, I wanted to challenge the people in the pictures to think of something unique. I chose the U Street neighborhood because of it’s deep African-American history. The neighborhood was home to people like Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald, Howard University, and actually predates New York’s Harlem as a cultural center for African-Americans. Until the 1920’s, it was the largest urban African-American community in America. It is also home to places like the Lincoln Theater and Bens’ Chili Bowl.

The U street/Shaw neighborhood has since become somewhat of a hipster neighborhood, filled with Starbucks, trendy bars, and shopping, so I wanted to pick certain people and photograph them in certain places that tried to give the feel of the old, classic, U Street. While not everyone has the same sort of “timeless” look, and there were a couple of elements thrown in to give a little bit of sense of time (a cell phone, style of dress of a couple of people, Obama merchandise, etc) I tried to keep those elements at a minimum to try to convey the feeling of the history of the neighborhood.

I asked everyone to give their first and last name, their age, and their word. Not everyone was comfortable with giving there last names since I was just a stranger on the street meeting them for the first time, but everyone that I asked was happy to participate and give me their thoughts.


RICHARD JENKINS, 83. "GODLY"


TAMARA COOPER, 38. "OPTIMISM"


CORDENIA, 40. "FINALLY"


MALIK, 14. "HOPE"


WANDA, 37. "INSPIRING"


MICHAEL SINGLETON, 58. "RENAISSANCE"


KEY, 46. "TOGETHERNESS"


BILL, 46. "HISTORY"


JEROME DOUGLAS, 57. "GREAT"


ANTOINE, 22. "INSPIRATIONAL"