The Community Gardener Portrait Project

New York City’s community gardens are a testament to local organizing and self-determination.

From the late 1960s onwards, residents—largely Black and Latino New Yorkers—mobilized to clean up the vacant lots that were increasingly common in their neighborhoods. Tired of living with abandoned spaces that too often became overgrown dumping grounds, they transformed the lots into verdant, welcoming gardens.

City-wide, community gardens play a significant role in providing culturally-relevant food security, local gathering space, and greenery. The stressors of everyday life further heighten the value of these unique spaces for their fresh food, fresh air, and space for people to decompress and connect with friends, neighbors, and nature.

The benefits of community gardens extend beyond the sociopolitical. In the face of extreme weather caused by the climate crisis, gardens offer relief from dangerous heat waves and reduce flash flooding by absorbing stormwater. Community gardens also sequester carbon in soil and plants, and create islands of habitat for wildlife.

The images and stories in this series offer a local perspective on a global experience of finding a safe haven, as well as joy, community, mental health support, and fresh food, all through community gardening.

While the portraits are of individuals, each garden is a collective effort. It takes the dedication of a group of volunteers working together in a multifaceted web of motivations to build and sustain these spaces.

Artist Bios

Zachary Schulman

Zachary Schulman is a New York City-based photographer dedicated to crafting images that advance movements for social change, support progressive nonprofits, and boost community-based organizations. He’s been a community gardener in New York City for 23 years.

Prior to working as a professional photographer, he spent 14 years working directly with New York City community gardeners as an organizer, program manager, and as part of direct action campaigns to support and defend gardens from destruction.

Zachary creates images that celebrate the accomplishments and passion of community gardeners throughout New York City. Using photography in coordination with interviews, he listens deeply while looking carefully. This practice fits within the long tradition of utilizing portrait photography and oral histories as tools in service to movements for social justice. He captions the portraits with quotes from interviews with the gardeners, centering participants as storytellers and historians, and emphasizing their skills, wisdom, and achievements.

Zachary’s work is on display at the Museum of the City of New York, has been featured on WNYC’s Morning Edition, and has appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, Democracy Now!, ABC News, The Source, Vice, Financial Times, Gothamist, The Wall Street Journal Magazine, Hyperallergic, and more.

Organizations

Photoville

Founded in 2011 in Brooklyn, NY, Photoville was built on the principles of addressing cultural equity and inclusion, which we are always striving for, by ensuring that the artists we exhibit are diverse in gender, class, and race.

In pursuit of its mission, Photoville produces an annual, city-wide open air photography festival in New York City, a wide range of free educational community initiatives, and a nationwide program of public art exhibitions.

By activating public spaces, amplifying visual storytellers, and creating unique and highly innovative exhibition and programming environments, we join the cause of nurturing a new lens of representation.

Through creative partnerships with festivals, city agencies, and other nonprofit organizations, Photoville offers visual storytellers, educators, and students financial support, mentorship, and promotional & production resources, on a range of exhibition opportunities.

For more information about Photoville visit, www.photoville.com
NYC Parks

NYC Parks is the steward of more than 30,000 acres of land — 14 percent of New York City — including more than 5,000 individual properties ranging from Coney Island Beach and Central Park to community gardens and Greenstreets. We operate more than 800 athletic fields and nearly 1,000 playgrounds, 1,800 basketball courts, 550 tennis courts, 65 public pools, 51 recreational facilities, 15 nature centers, 14 golf courses, and 14 miles of beaches. We care for 1,200 monuments and 23 historic house museums. We look after 600,000 street trees, and two million more in parks. We are New York City’s principal providers of recreational and athletic facilities and programs. We are home to free concerts, world-class sports events, and cultural festivals.