NYPD blues: Ex-cop's gripping portrait of the boredom, the fear and the adrenalin rookie officers face on the mean streets of New York


Antonio Bolfo was a police officer from 2006 to 2008, working in some of the most crime-ridden housing projects in the South Bronx.



A born-and-bred New Yorker, Mr Bolfo's interest in law enforcement was sparked by the World Trade Center attacks, so he, like so many other officers, entered the police academy to find his purpose.



But the more and more he fell in love with police work, the more and more he photographed it, capturing an intimate view of New York City's finest never seen before.



The images are currently on exhibition at the Half King in Chelsea, where the curators invite the public to take a closer look at the police and the emotional cost of their jobs.



Descent: An IMPACT cop descends into the bowels of the Mitchell Housing Projects in the Mott Haven neighborhood located in South Bronx, New York City. The stairwells of the projects are a haven for criminal activity, including robberies, assaults, and drug deals. The passages are narrow and dark, providing victims with no warning before they are attacked

Rage: Party goers, who only moments before called the police, shout at responding officers who attempt to restrain the man they accused of stealing handbags from their house party

Team: Officers Weadock, left, and Olivero, right, spend their lunch break checking out the precinct gossip on Facebook in Mott Haven. Scandalous rumors run amuck in the precinct, and Facebook helps fan the fires

Dance: Residents of Mitchell Housing Projects flirt with Officer Devine in Mott Haven neighborhood

Mr Bolfo said that four days after graduating from the police academy he was ordered to PSA 7, the precinct that monitors the public housing projects in Mott Haven. Mott Haven is a low-income residential neighborhood in the southwest Bronx between West 138th Street to East 149th Street. East 138th Street is the primary thoroughfare through the area.

'Prior to this, I had six months of Police Academy classroom training, along with some gym sessions where they made us run in circles with five-minute intervals of punching and kicking,' he said.



He was assigned to Operation Impact, begun in 2003, which puts new recruits with seasoned officers to tackle some of the most dangerous neighborhoods in New York City.

In addition to his six months of classroom training, Mr Bolfo said his firearms training consisted of just one week of shooting at 'immobile targets' in the NYPD shooting range.



'We were as green as could be, and like other Impact officers I hit the ground running with little to no knowledge of how to operate on the street,' Mr Bolfo said. 'Yet we were expected to apprehend some of the toughest and most intelligent people in the city.'



Glare: Officer Pastula catches a fleeing suspect in the stairwell who is thought to be dealing drugs in the Mitchell Housing Projects in Mott Haven

The Walk: Officer Alba, a veteran Impact cop, leads two brand new officers through their first snow storm in the projects. Although Officer Alba was supposed to spend only 6 months in Impact, after a year and a half he has just received orders for another six-month tour

Engage: A Milbrook resident shows off by doing flips in front of Officers Pettiway, left, and Diaz, right

He said he was unprepared for the harsh realities of the job, which included solving family disputes, consoling the parents of murdered children and even entertaining the neighborhood drunk.



It took its toll on the idealistic young man and his peers.



'No one calls the police when they're happy. We had no choice but to learn fast, but learning comes from making mistakes, and unfortunately we all made a lot of them.'

Antonio Bolfo

'No one calls the police when they're happy,' Mr Bolfo said. 'We had no choice but to learn fast, but learning comes from making mistakes, and unfortunately we all made a lot of them.'



His images of this vulnerable time are simultaneously fascinating and heartbreaking.



The rookie officers travel down dark and narrow hallways, chase down suspects and struggle to keep it together.

The fear and uncertainty on the officers' faces is captured with a confident lens, throughout the moments of calm to the outbreaks of chaos.

'I think many people who choose to become police officers do so with some optimism and hope that they can make a difference,' Mr Bolfo said. 'But unfortunately, in a community like South Bronx Housing, the reality comes crashing down on you very fast.'



Rather than hope for a better future, officers wrestled with hostility and resentment.



The Sword and the Pen: Officers update their memo books with the events that have unfolded throughout their tour to make certain that all three accounts match November 8, 2008 in Mott Haven. The memo book is admissible evidence in court. What is written in it is considered an official record

Pressure: Officers Weadock, left, Olivero, center, and Suarino, right, helplessly listen to a colleague cry for help over the radio in Mott Haven. Because Impact cops patrol on foot and have no access to police vehicles, they are unable to respond to the officer in need of assistance

Mr Bolfo said that depression was rampant in his unit, 'but no one would ever admit it out of fear it would be taken as a sign of weakness.'



His peers turned to alcohol or infidelity to escape the mounting pressure, Mr Bolfo said, but he chose to pick up a camera to capture the scenes that unfolded all around him.



'It started to feel more important and useful, and it was a fusion of everything that I had come to love,' he said.



He resigned from the police department and enrolled in the International Center of Photography. His images have earned him numerous accolades, though not everyone is a fan.



Paul Browne, New York City Police Department's Deputy Commissioner of Public Information, would not comment on the essay nor its depiction of his department, confirming only that Mr Bolfo was employed by the NYPD for 18 months and then resigned. 'Most NYPD officers serve for 20 years or more,' he said.

'We all joined the NYPD in search of something, and I found it in the hallways, stairs, and apartments of the housing projects,' Mr Bolfo said.

The exhibition runs from July 24 until September 9.