• Family Portraits
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    • Adolescentes
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Joey O'Loughlin

  • Projects
    • Family Portraits
    • Muslims in Brooklyn
    • Palaces for the People
    • Hidden In Plain Sight
    • A Stitch In Time
    • Disconnect/Connect
    • Where Do The Books Go?
    • Adolescentes
  • Info
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HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT

It’s not easy to stand in a food line; it’s a public display of personal challenges. These photos were made to foster connections between the people standing in the lines and the people who walk by them, unaware. Joey spent three years in all five boroughs getting to know the people on these lines and the food pantries that serve them. 

The year-long exhibit, “Hidden in Plain Sight: Portraits of Hunger in NYC,” was shown at the Center for Brooklyn History in 2016, and was supported with public programming including films, lectures, and educational outreach.

This work was featured in The New York Times Lens Blog, The Nation, Slate, Fast Company, Pacific Standard Magazine, PBS, and Al Jazeera America.

This project was done in partnership with the Food Bank for New York City.

 
Maria Rodriguez’s apartment sparkles; it’s a warm and peaceful home. Food from a nearby pantry helps Maria, a stroke survivor, care for her three school-age relatives while their parents work in the Dominican Republic. The children, Ysabella, Yocet,
Each month, more than a thousand people collect groceries at this pantry, and the number keeps rising. The food distribution is a community service provided by Honor House, temporary housing for veterans in transition. Homes in this middle-class nei
Mae Tate is a hard-working seamstress in her sixties who was downsized several years ago. Now she works out of her apartment, day and night, seven days a week, but doesn’t earn enough to make ends meet. The cost of living in Bed-Stuy is now so high
The 2008 financial crisis rocked Paul McKay’s world. His thriving luxury renovation business in New Jersey was leveled and his marriage crumbled. So the Irish immigrant, born on a farm, dusted himself off and started over in Richmond Hill. Neither P
Grandmothers are familiar faces on the pantry lines. Nora Balfour is 74 and a great-grandmother, but she still calls her husband “Lover” when he calls her after church. He’s in Jamaica, while she’s in the Bronx with her son, his wife, and their chil
It was a long day for Gregory and Shamar, 12 and 14 years old. Along with their uncle Otto Starzman, the boys helped set up and break down two food pantries in two different boroughs since their alarm went off at 4:30 am. Each week, a typical pantry
Dina Garcia is a 42-year-old mother of two little girls and a 26-year-old son with three children of his own. She’s resourceful and navigates a challenging life with upbeat resignation. She lives in the Bronx and works in a grocery store bakery on t
Patrick is 46 years old and disabled by AIDS. He was outed in the military, less than honorably discharged, and never completely regained his footing. He worked for Housing Works for years and lives alone in subsidized housing on Staten Island, a mi
Every day in New York City, thousands of people stand in line for hours, waiting for a bag of groceries at local food pantries. Originally conceived as an emergency ration, with staples for three meals for three days, a pantry visit is the new norma
On Saturday mornings, 4-year-old Brandon and his family make a four-mile round trip to collect food at two Queens food pantries. Running, laughing, and teasing his brother and cousins, he trails along in high spirits, sometimes catching a ride in th
 
 

© Joey O’Loughlin