Even though the signs are in sync with one another, not offering contradictory information, the photograph conveys a sense of disorientation. You have to read them twice, maybe, to see that they line up. The inclusion of the house matters, too; it gives the disorientation context. What does it mean for the people who live on that block, that multiple signs tell people unfamiliar with the street layout that they’re not supposed to go there? What does it mean that there’s only one way off the block for the residents, a sense of limited options? Who made these decisions in the first place?
The picture is unsigned, but it was shot by one of 17 students from Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School and High School in the Community for “New Haven Revisited,” a photography show running through July 31 in the gallery on the lower level of the Ives Branch of the New Haven Free Public Library.
The show begins from a pointed place, with a memory of mid-century New Haven as the “Model City” of America, brimming with government funding for the razing of neighborhoods to make way for “highways, parking lots, and civic buildings,” an accompanying statement reads.
“While urban renewal was meant to revitalize New Haven, in the half-century since the completion of these projects, the benefits of urban renewal have not materialized. Instead, socioeconomic inequalities have only become further entrenched and residents today grapple with fragmented landscapes, fractured communities, and the persisting legacy of urban renewal.”
The statement continues: “Today, while New Haven community leaders gather to confront the impacts of renewal and shape the future of the city, a key voice is missing: the youth of today, who are set to inherit the New Haven of tomorrow. What can we learn from young people? Too old for playgrounds but not yet able to frequent bars and restaurants, how do young people navigate the legacy of urban renewal and carve out spaces that they can call their own?”
The show documents places where students “feel welcome or unwelcome. Amid the reshaping of New Haven happening today, what future are we leaving to our youth?”
Interestingly, while the question of whether a place is considered welcome or unwelcome to the photograph pervades the exhibition, the viewer is left to decide which category any of the photos belong in. This feels intentional; it gives every image a tense ambiguity. Many of the shots are of places on the New Haven Green, a place famously designed for everyone in the city to gather, but most of the time the pictures have no people in them. Many other shots are recognizably of the streets downtown. Do the photographers feel welcome or unwelcome? Do you, the viewer? Why or why not? Who are these public spaces for? What are the unwritten rules about who gets to be on them and when?
This even extends to photos where the call might be a little more obvious. A large outdoor event on Audubon Street seems about as friendly as a place could be, complete with a smiling face to greet you. But does everyone feel good going there? It’s juxtaposed with a place that seems like you wouldn’t want to linger long — along with pictures of the walkways over the Route 34 connector, which in the photos can seem downright hostile to pedestrians (a feeling borne out by the danger those intersections pose from speeding cars).
But just as important, several photos are of places of pretty clear solace; as often as not, in those places, plants are emerging from the cityscape to create a sense of lush peace. The camera, trained on those perennial flowers without giving any context for their surroundings, have a point to make: that for the plant, all that really matters is its immediate surroundings. It could be in a park or next to a parking garage. As long as it has enough soil, water, and light, it can thrive.
The question about whether the artists feel welcome or unwelcome is perhaps at its most pointed in the photographs of schools — places many adults in New Haven like to talk about without ever really having a chance to see inside them. “New Haven Revisited” offers a glimpse, of hallways, lab rooms, music rooms, and cafeterias. In the normality of their appearance, there’s complexity. Is a photograph of the possible loneliness of an institution or of the camaraderie the students share? Or is it both and more?
That complexity gets at the show’s deeper aims. In focusing on places where people feel welcome or unwelcome, the exhibition captures “not the New Haven when you search on Google but New Haven from the perspective of someone who really knows the beauty and ugly of the city,” as one unnamed student puts it. The students see it all, breathe it, live it, and perhaps know more about it than adults do. They also get at a more fundamental truth about a place: that your feelings about it are maybe mostly about the other people you share it with. People can make a place what it is. Or as another student puts it, “just being with people I trust makes me feel welcome anywhere.”
“New Haven Revisited” runs at the Ives Branch of the New Haven Free Public Library, 133 Elm St., through July 31. Visit the library’s website for hours and more information.