Northeast: One era gives way to another

Photographs and text by Michael Robinson Chavez

The city is disappearing fast, or at least being reinvented. Glass towers seem to be rising on every corner, and construction cranes jockey for position in an increasingly claustrophobic skyline. After nine years away from Washington, my return in 2016 felt far less nostalgic than I expected. So in documenting life in Northeast Washington, it was what I didn’t see that prompted me to work mostly with an iPhone to photograph the buildings, places and people that may not still be here in a few years. The iPhone allowed me to capture the transition I was seeing unfold; I used an app that combined black-and-white and a muted palette, as though one era was giving way to another.

I found myself roaming around the warehouse district that surrounds Union Market. Halal meat markets, prayer rug vendors and that fantastic Mexican produce market are all anticipating having to join their former neighbors in the suburbs. The costs of leases are skyrocketing, and these businesses are being priced out. Their regulars — immigrants from Africa, Latin America and Asia — will have to shop elsewhere. And when that happens, the area’s transformation will be complete.

To me, as a photographer, the city offers fewer surprises these days. Street photography is at its best when the unexpected — and the extraordinary — occurs around any random corner. As neighborhoods begin to mimic one another, I have to look much harder to find those moments.