The Community Album co-organizers have been reaching out to the Central Ave community in search of residents (past and present) who want to contribute photos from their personal albums. Calls and emails have gone out far and wide. We’ve walked Central Ave from Vernon to Adams putting up these posters:

But what we’ve all found most effective are the personal connections we make in the process of walking the Avenue, putting up posters, and introducing ourselves and our project.
Take, for example, my visit to the tenants’ meeting at the Juanita Tate Legacy Towers at 49th and Central, immediately below.

I presented the project to all those at the meeting, showed some examples of my previous portrait work, shared the plan for the installation, and our hopes for an eventual permanent home for this new archive we’re assembling.
After my initial visit to the Legacy Towers, and two more follow-up visits there, I met Mr. Will Yancey, who invited me to his Masonic lodge just a few blocks away to take a look through their archives. What a privilege. Beyond the organization’s archives, Mr. Yancey shared the personal collection of Frank J. Bobo, the “big dog,” in Yancey’s words, of the Lodge in the 1960s and 1970s. Bobo and his wife are both now deceased. I’m honored that we can daylight Bobo’s wonderful family photos, stretching back to 1936, in the April 14 show.
Mr. Yancey, me, and co-organizer Jason Neville at the lodge, sorting through 75 years of snapshots.



Another local institution in the neighborhood that was incredibly helpful was Saint Patricks Catholic Church. Jason reached out to Father Timothy Dyer, who invited him to speak to the congregation at 3 different Sunday masses. Jason asked them to bring their family albums the following Sunday.
The next Sunday we were there, ready to scan. This was our little mobile scanning station.

***UPDATE*** At the end of the community contribution process, we collected over 800 images from 44 unique individuals and organizations. From those, I chose 250 images that, with 40 of my pictures, comprised the installation.