In photos: ’00s Brooklyn on the cusp of gentrification

In New York City, the only constant is change. Its fate is constantly written and rewritten by the state’s long hand, under policies of eminent domain, urban renewal, benign neglect, and gentrification. With I Give You Power (Little Big Man Books), Brooklyn native Rulx Thork crafts a love letter to the borough of his birth. 

Hailing from Crown Heights, Thork was ensconced in community: family, friends, school, church, and religious activities. ​“Growing up people viewed me as a nerd, probably because my home life was a bit stuffy,” he says. ​“That kind of upbringing surrounded me with a shield that made me navigate the world carefully later in life, but it did not give me the whole story about the world around me.” 

Then Thork found photography and never looked back. ​“Picking up a camera set me free and I loved that freedom,” he says. At age 18, he got his own apartment and started hanging out in the East and West Villages, documenting everything. Although his Kodachrome slides and Tri‑X negatives were later stolen, Thork would not give up.

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In the years following September 11, the gentrification of downtown New York was complete, with the years of billionaire Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s reign finishing the job that Rudy Giuliani began in the early 1990s. In a disconcerting reversal of ​“white flight”, Sex in the City fanatics descended on The Village, sending the rents up. ​“I stopped hanging out there,” Thork says. ​“It was time to move on.” 

Brooklyn was calling Thork, but he didn’t know where to start. Then one bright summer day in 2005, while riding a bus, he first spotted Jamal, a 17-year-old local from Bedford Stuyvesant hanging out with friends in front of a bodega. ​“The scene reminded me of images I remember seeing in ghetto romanticism films from the ​’90s like Boyz in the Hood and Menace II Society,” says Thork, who got off the bus and introduced himself. 

“I knew that he was a gang member because of the bandana in the back pocket of his pants,” he continues. ​“He was an exemplary image of radiant youth; he was muscular, strong, athletic, and had chiselled features, and he was cool. I must add that the expression ​‘radiant youth’ is mostly used in a religious context that focuses on the spiritual growth of young people.” 

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Thork began hanging out almost daily in Bed-Stuy photographing Jamal and his friends, preserving a slice of city life in the tradition of Jamel Shabazz, Arlene Gottfried, Nan Goldin, and Peter Hujar. ​“As a rule, I don’t photograph people for the sake of photographing them. I need to get to know them and familiarize myself with their environment,” he says. ​“They are more important than the image because without them and their approval, there is no image.” 

At the heart of Thork’s work lies mutual respect born of the knowledge that trust must be earned. ​“A stranger with a camera is always looked upon with suspicion. People used to ask me if I was a cop when they saw me taking pictures,” he says. ​“When I started, some people told me that in the ​’80s and ​’90s, very well into the early 2000s, the police used to be on rooftops in different parts of Brooklyn taking pictures of people below. I can confirm this because I have witnessed this myself.” 

The Brooklyn of these photographs, made between 2005 and 2018, no longer exists as it once did. Pointing to an image of two young men listening attentively to gentleman in a dark suit and wearing a hat, Thork says, ​“That scene used to be a typical one in Brooklyn where guys would gather on a street corner to discuss serious topics, sharing knowledge about esoteric ancient African religions, particularly ancient Egyptian religions. Small outdoor gatherings to have intellectual discussions are just not happening anymore. This is why that particular photograph is my favourite one out of the book.”

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I Give You Power by Rulx Thork is published by Little Big Man.

Miss Rosen is a freelance arts and photography writer, follow her on X.

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