“My images reflect the feral vitality and hope of these young men. The interplay between good and evil, violence and love, chaos and family, is the theme, but this is not documentation. There is no story line. There is only a feeling.” – Stephen Shames

Stephen Shames is an award-winning photojournalist and artist that has worked for numerous clients including Newsweek, People, Esquire, US News, Time, The Ford and Annie E. Casey Foundations, United Jewish Communities and Independent Care System. He’s also the author of eight monographs. His newest book, Bronx Boys [University of Texas Press, 2014], stemmed from a 1977 assignment for Look magazine. He documented boys “coming of age” in the Bronx, which was known as one of the toughest and poorest neighborhoods in the entire United States at the time. In a statement about the book, the publisher says “The Bronx boys lived on streets ravaged by poverty, drugs, violence and gangs. They bonded together and raised themselves in ‘crews,’ adolescent families they created for protection and companionship.” The images are a very real and honest depiction of their lives, highlighting both the good and the bad.

Bronx Boys includes a 123 duotone photographs made by Shames between 1977 and 2000. The work can also be seen on The Fence at Photoville, and opens at Steven Kasher Gallery on November 6, 2014.