Neighborhood Gentrification is a photography documentary about the gradual destruction of a culturally rich and historical community in Dallas. The photos focus on homes because homes are the core elements of a neighborhood. In this neighborhood, the diverse characteristics of the original homes reflected the diverseness of the people who live in them. When a home is torn down and replaced, the original members of the community are also usually replaced by new residents.

This series tells the story of how gentrification starts in the distance and gradually moves closer and closer until it completely overtakes and replaces the old house. Once gentrification starts, the destruction is inevitable and the preexisting residents are helpless in resisting it. Even if they hold out, eventually their all friends and neighbors have left and the whole neighborhood is just as foreign to them as if they had moved. Then the reasons for holding out begin to vanish just like the culture they once knew. I connect this process to the process we go through as we age. Time is an inevitable force that ultimately replaces our youth with wisdom and old bodies and then we are replaced by the young people that come after us.

I made these photos with a Hasselblad 500 c/m on medium format analog film.
I blogged about the process of capturing these photos here: Neighborhood Gentrification, A Photography Documentary.