Curator Selection / 2018 / /

Kensington Blues

  • Photographer
    Jeffrey Stockbridge, United States

From 2008 to 2014, Jeffrey Stockbridge photographed drug
addicts and sex workers along Kensington Avenue in North
Philadelphia. Working with a 4x5 view camera, an audio recorder
and a journal, Stockbridge set out to document the stories of the
people he met on the street. Allowing those he photographed to
tell their stories in their own words, Stockbridge became a conduit
for addicts to personally express themselves to the outside world
that has largely forgotten them.

With opioid addiction and drug overdose deaths skyrocketing in
the US, Kensington Blues provides a timely and insightful look into
the causes and effects of addiction bolstered by the intimate first
person narratives of his subjects.

Awards Independence Foundation Fellowship, 3rd Place in the Taylor-Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize at The National Portrait Gallery, London. Finalist, "Center for Documentary Studies/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography." Top 50 Finalist, Critical Mass, Photo Lucida. Finalist, "Center for Documentary Studies/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography."
Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Grant. Callan/McNamara Award, The Print Center. Center For Emerging Visual Artists Fellowship.