A dark corner of America: Photographs show Philadelphia's seedy, drug-fueled underbelly and its inhabitants' struggle to survive




It's been described as the street of lost souls and forgotten dreams.



On Philadelphia's Kensington Avenue, the desperation is palpable.



Drug addicts and prostitutes take shelter under elevated train tracks that run three miles into the far northeast of the city, in a run-down neighbourhood that has become a portraiture of America at its darkest.



Life on the streets: Photographer Jeffrey Stockbridge for four years has tracked the life of addicts living under the tracks along Kensington Avenue in Philadelphia. Pictured is Nancy in 2009

Photographer Jeffrey Stockbridge for four years has tracked the life of addicts living under the tracks along Kensington.



His blog, Kensington Blues , is what he calls a 'repository of photographs, audio recordings, journal entries and reflections' from his experience in the area he remembers as littered with cheap bars, pawnshops and check cashing businesses.



Mr Stockbridge began the project in the winter of 2008, when he spotted Melissa standing on the avenue.

Not knowing where the project would lead him, he brought an audio recorder to track his thoughts. Instead, he recorded Melissa, her words colouring the portrait of a woman bundled in a black coat leading toward the camera, head tilted, below a chain-link fence.



'I was first introduced to the streets of Philadelphia about 5 years ago,' she tells him.



'Um, the prostitution uh, came about probably around the same time the drugs did. I did finally leave Philadelphia um, and became clean. I moved to Delaware, came back, relapsed, and am trying to get myself back to, on the right road again. Um, it does have a lot to do with drugs but I can at least say this time, now I’m stronger than what I was now than what I was before.'

Lost: Sarah walks along the tracks to meet another addict

Honesty: Corinne, pictured on a stoop below the tracks in 2009, writes about her struggle with drug addiciton

Despair: Nicole, pictured on Kensington Avenue in 2009, journals about her desire to escape her surroundings and build a better life

Dangerous lives: Darlene, left, had just been raped before the photographer saw her; right, Mary spoke to Mr Stockbridge about her 22-year struggle with drug addiction

Hard-knocks: Twins Carroll, left, and Shelly, right, were only 20 when they were photographed in 2009; right, Teri, pictured in the winter of 2008, spoke of how she got into drugs and prostitution

Months later, he found Sarah, a small-framed woman with cropped blonde hair, sitting on the stoop of a gated doorway under the railway.



'My daughter’s father left, I went into a major depression stage, and I was almost 300 lbs, I started sniffing cocaine, and then uh somebody said, here try this. And so I started sniffing Heroin. I sniffed for a couple years and then a man shot me up while I was sleeping. So I started shooting up after that.'



That was over 10 years ago, she said. Shortly after, Mr Stockbridge followed Sarah where she met another addict, Dennis, on an abandoned set of tracks nearby.



A caption below them reads: 'The veins in Sarah's arms were unable to properly handle the injection, so at her request, Dennis shoots her in the neck.'



Still, she told the photographer, she's hoping to get clean.

Addicts: Patty, born and raised in Kensington, 2009, lives on the streets; right, Sarah, has a 10-year-old daughter

Stephanie, 2008.

Ghosts: Dennis, left, and Jenna, right, both pictured in 2009, have not been able to rip themselves from the streets

Tough: Melissa, left, pictured in 2008, and Carroll, right, in 2009, who uses tactics like sleeping in the middle of the day to stay safe

Life on the streets: Bentley's Place, Kensington Avenue, 2009 is a haven for drugs, prostitution and crime

Grimy: A view of the Harbison Dairy Milk Bottle from Front Street in 2009, where addicts linger nearby

'This is the worst, loneliest existence that there is in the world. I want to go to detox but I’ve tried with my insurance and they only give you a certain amount of time,' she said.



Until then, she sells herself to get high.



'I’ve been ripped off, I’ve been robbed, I’ve been raped, I’ve been stuck up, I’ve been gang raped, I’ve had a gun to my head, I’ve had a knife to my neck,' she said.



Twins Carroll and Shelly, or Tic Tac and Tootsie as they're called, were 20-years-old when they were photographed by Mr Stockbridge in 2009. By then, they had already been living on the streets for a year.



Sitting on the steps of an abandoned building, Carroll told him how they survived the blistering winter against all odds.



'My dad lives in a halfway house and my mom lives with her boyfriend. She gives us money here and there but we can’t live with her. We’ve been raped, tied up, guys try to say they’re undercover cops.

Hope: Dolly, pictured with her two children in 2009, says she struggled for years to get sober before finally kicking the habit - but it's a daily battle

'We’re twins but like... I’m the older sister,' she said.



'We’re seven minutes apart but still I feel obligated to take care of her and it hurts me that I can’t provide a house for her and stuff like that. So I try to do the best I can to make sure I get money so she has somewhere to rest her head, food, and stuff like that. No matter what I gotta do, any means necessary.'



Then, there's Dolly - a mother-of-two who admits after years of using, and finally accepting sobriety, she still craves heroin. Her family, she said, has stopped her from using again. Her daughter was a Methadone baby; she relapsed shortly after having her son; and the rest of her family just didn't believe she could do it.



Pictured walking her dog with her two children, she told of her reason for speaking out.

