Sí Trends

"My crack is photography." While that's not something you would expect to hear from a distinguished photographer, Boogie is a little different. With a knack for getting behind anyone's emotional mask and the boldness to randomly roam the streets of tough New York City neighborhoods, Boogie has seen things many of us don't want to, at least, not in person. From drug addicts to hardcore gangbangers, he's seen and documented it all in his first release, It's All Good. With his self-titled second book, Boogie, he hopes to show his gentler side.

[Sí]Trends: What is this book about and how is it different from the first?
Boogie: This book, Boogie, contains more personal and more day-to-day street stuff, no aggression, nothing hardcore, just my gentle side.

[Sí]Trends: For your sanity, was it necessary to put this gentle work out after your first book?
Boogie: Yeah, I would say so because when I finished the whole "gang and drugs" project it was very hard for me to snap out. I was going nowhere. Nothing that wasn't a gun or a needle would inspire me. But then I realized no matter where you are or what street you're walking down, there are great things going on and there's beauty everywhere. I felt liberated and reborn and it was a beautiful feeling.

[Sí]Trends: Do people know who you are on the streets?
Boogie: People know me around that neighborhood of course, because we became friends. It's not just that I went in, took pictures and went out; I spent close to three years working on this project. I was going back and forth between drug addicts and gang members and when I would get sick of people shooting up and smoking crack, I would go to the nearby projects and hang out with gangsters.

[Sí]Trends: Right, guns, much more lighthearted, I understand...
Boogie: Actually it is, for me it was totally OK, those guys accepted me totally. At first it's about taking photos, but then it becomes part of your life. You meet people, you make friends, and the whole thing becomes important in your life. I would go there and it wasn't about taking pictures, I would go there to hang out.

[Sí]Trends: Do you still keep in touch with a lot of these people?
Boogie: Yeah, one of the guys from the cover, It's All Good, came to my book release party with his dad, they both have text in the book, and we were signing books together.

[Sí]Trends: Did you ever feel like you wanted to help these people that you saw?
Boogie: Yes of course.

[Sí]Trends: How did you deal with that?
Boogie: You want to help these people of course, but you realize that these people are beyond your help. Me as one photographer cannot do anything to help, except document their lives and do them justice through that. My work doesn't moralize and doesn't preach-that's not my goal. My goal is to show these people the way they are, and they're just the same as you and me. You never know how you're going to end up. One wrong choice and you're gone. I think I'm doing a good thing by doing them justice with my photos.

[Sí]Trends: What do you want to be most remembered for?
Boogie: That I don't know because I think that my best work is yet to come. I hate to think that I did my best work already; there are so many things to document and so many stories to tell. I think my best work is yet to come, so I'll let you know [laughs].