“Michael Ramon Sr. pounds his fist into his hand as at the funeral services for his daughter, Shanika Lee, 24, killed by gunfire. Ramon also lost his son to gun violence. ” © Dominic Bracco
I began focusing on “street life” after meeting Honey Johnson: a mother who had lost two of her sons to gun violence. The youngest was only 15 when he was murdered. Honey was my first friend in Washington after I moved there to intern in 2007. I would visit her often and photograph the streets around where she worked at the only sit in restaurant in the neighborhood. A year later I came back to D.C. and began working in southeast on a gun violence story for The Washington Post. I later was granted access to Oak Hill Youth detentions center in Laurel Md. It was sobering being with them even though I was only allowed there for one day. They talked about “hustling” because it was all they knew. Now they are behind bars. While working I tried to make pictures that said something about the culture of the street. Not all of the kids locked up in Oak Hill were in for violence…but it is the cultural relationship between the street and their daily lives that tilts the scales against them and many times ends in further blood shed. It keeps the cycle going.
Dominic Bracco May 17th, 2008
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