The Orange Line is part of the public transport system in Boston. It opened in 1901. Most of it was underground but its last four miles, in the south-west of the city, came out in Chinatown and went up to Forest Hills. By the early 1980s, this section of elevated railway had become dilapidated, dirty and dangerous, which inadvertently resulted in the area having affordable housing, the low rents attracting people who couldn’t afford to live in other parts of Boston. Homelessness and poverty became big issues.
The section was scheduled for demolition in 1985. There were concerns that, when the overhead railway came down, gentrification would happen, displacing the people who lived there. I was one of five photographers commissioned by the Urban Arts organisation to capture what we found interesting along this stretch before it was demolished.
This woman I came across lived in a homeless shelter with her two children. Her plight seems very evident in her facial expression: she looks concerned about the wellbeing of her two very young children and possibly the loss of the shelter. I was amazed and appreciative that she came to the camera so frankly and trustingly.
I set up my large, tripod-mounted 8x10 Deardorff camera from 1928. I neither direct nor coach those I photograph. I’ll go no further than suggesting where they might stand. I just try to make them comfortable, letting them choose what they wish to reveal of themselves. I wait for a moment that feels descriptive and release the shutter. The blur of movement in the background here is serendipity: I was concentrating on making the photograph and I didn’t realise a vehicle was coming down the road.
I think all photographs of troubled mothers with small children find a precedent in Dorothea Lange’s iconic 1936 Migrant Mother photo. This young woman in my photo epitomised the concerns of many, who feared the displacement that seemed certain to follow the demolition of the Orange Line.
The railway came down in 1985. The line still terminates at Forest Hills Station but by a different route. What was feared did come to pass. Most of the homeless shelters went and now there are very high-end shops, fine restaurants and high-rise apartment blocks. By law, some are allotted to those on low incomes but the sky is the limit for the rest and rents are very high.
I was first exposed to photography by my father. He was a serious amateur, who used an Exakta 35mm camera and kept a convertible darkroom in our bathroom. My early interest was in the chemical processes, in which a negative is projected on to a piece of blank white photographic paper, which is then immersed in a chemical. Magically, an image will begin to appear. That can be addictive.
Gradually, I noticed other things happening in my photographs, to do with interpretation, meaning and substance. I came to recognise photography as a powerful form of expression. My images could say things I couldn’t articulate. That’s when I became hooked. Photography became a way of life or, more accurately, an obsession. I’m more likely to leave my house without my wallet than my camera.
Photography is a process of discovery. Every image is a surprise. As photographers, we don’t know what we’re looking for until we find it. My first project of significance was in 1970, photographing people in a nursing home on an island near Boston. It’s always been people that have interested me. Projects I’ve worked on include The Salvation Army, female prisoners, cross-country campers and families who lived off dumps in Tijuana, Mexico. I hope my photos have an impact. But it might be a false hope. I don’t think photographs are the best instruments for social change. Legislation is.
Jack Lueders-Booth’s CV
Born: Boston, US, 1935.
Trained: Self-taught.
Influences: Berenice Abbott, Eugène Atget, Chauncey Hare, Graciela Iturbide, Josef Koudelka, August Sander.
High point: “Leaving forever my corporate job in 1970, aged 35, to practice and teach photography.”
Low point: “One evening, when I’d been photographing families who lived off the dumps of Tijuana, all the pickers had gone home and I was surrounded by a pack of 30 wild dogs. They’d collected into a group, nudging towards me. It was terrifying.”
Top tip: “Photograph what you love and photograph it like you mean it. Always know that your best work lies ahead. And don’t give up your day job.”
• The Orange Line by Jack Lueders-Booth is published by Stanley/Baker . See and Instagram
