Photo Essay - ~*Artist's Statement*~

I did not know much about the Johnsons Park neighborhood before this class. I was interested to learn more about the changes that have been occurring in the neighborhood over the past few years. I decided to meet with Tony Gibson to learn more about what this neighborhood was about. Tony was kind enough to give us a tour and explain, in detail, about the neighborhood. He explained how many of the houses were run down so they tore them down and rebuilt brand new houses in their place. They shut down a drug house across from Tony’s house and shut down the corner store because it was attracting so much crime. The members of community are active in a block watch program and neighbors look out for one another. I tried to capture the rebuild of the neighborhood through my photographs. I used some of the older photographs Tony gave us to show the tearing down of old houses. I went into the neighborhood and took pictures of the newer homes and their properties. I tried to show the transformation from old to new. The difference between some of the homes in unbelievable; some of them are still boarded up and falling apart, while their next door neighbor has a beautiful, two-storied home with a manicured yard. It was very easy to capture the change with a camera. I could see the transformation and the effort put into making this neighborhood a better place. The residents have a new respect for where they live because it is a really nice place to live now. The crime rate seemed to go down due to the neighborhood watch and the community’s effort to keep their neighborhood safe. I am happy that there is an effort to make the communities in Milwaukee a better place. I think that if more communities were like Johnsons Park Milwaukee would have a lot less crime and people would be a lot more friendlily towards each other. I learned through this project that the world can be a better place if you work together and put in the effort.