Prince Street Girls
I was riding a bicycle through my neighborhood in Little Italy nearly thirty-five years ago. Suddenly, a blast of light flashed into my eyes. Its source was a group of kids standing with a mirror, focusing the sun on my face, nearly blinding me. That was the day I met the Prince Street Girls, the name I gave the group that hung out on the nearby corner almost every day. I was the stranger who didn’t belong. Little Italy was mostly for Italians then.
The "Frankie and the Prince Street Girls," 1975
Contact sheet, Group portraits on Mott street, 1976
Tina and Julia on Mott Street, 1978
Roe, JoJo, Dee, and Lisa, 1976
After school on the corner of Prince and Mott Streets, 1976
JoJo, Roe, Julia, Pina, Lisa and Dee, on the corner of Prince and Mott Streets, 1976
Contact sheet, Early portraits on Mott street, 1975
The girls were from small Italian-American families and they were almost all related. Sometimes they would reluctantly introduce me to their parents if we met in the market or at the pizza parlor, but I was never invited into any of their homes. I was their secret friend, and my loft became a kind of hideaway when they dared to cross the street, which their parents had forbidden.
Dee and Lisa fight on Prince Street, 1976
Frankie with the girls, 1976
At the playground under the Manhattan Bridge, 1976
JoJo, Carol and Lisa on the corner of Prince and Mott Streets, 1976
Carol, JoJo and Lisa hanging out on Mott Street, 1976
Dee and Lisa on Mott Street, 1976
Julia, Dee, Lisa & Roe, in front of St. Patrick's Church, 1976
Dee, JoJo, Frankie and Lisa, after school on Prince Street, 1976
Carol at Julia's Communion, St. Patrick's Old Cathedral, Little Italy, New York, 1978
Prince Street Girls family tree, 2009
Carol, Pina and Lisa, in front of St. Patrick's Church, 1976
Tina, Phylis and Carol, 1979
Carol, Dee and Pina, 1978
Returning home from Rockaway Beach, 1978
On the A Train to Rockaway Beach, 1978
Pebbles, JoJo and Carol on the A train, 1978
Roseann on A train, 1978
Carol at Rockaway Beach, 1978
Carol, Lisa and JoJo at Rockaway Beach, 1978
Carol and JoJo at Rockaway Beach, 1978
Pebbles at Rockaway Beach, 1978
Prince Street Girls began as a series of incidental encounters. At the beginning I was making pictures for them. They’d see me coming and yell, “Take a picture! Take a picture!” By 1978 they were changing, and I wanted to capture them growing up. Yet my own focus was shifting. My work was taking me away from the neighborhood. When I landed in Central America, I found myself in the middle of a war and part of another community.
Carol at Julia's Communion, St. Patrick's Old Cathedral, Little Italy, New York, 1978
Hanging out on Baxter Street, 1978
Pebbles, JoJo and Roe on Baxter Street, 1978
Roe and Pina in front of their home on Mott Street, 1978
Lisa at the Mott Street Social Club, 1979
By the time I got back to New York nearly ten years later, the girls were long past their teens, beyond the boundaries of our streets, and beginning families of their own. Looking at these pictures now reminds me of how difficult it was to integrate my two lives- family and friends at home, and my life as a photographer on the road. It was often a painful separation, though not one I regret having chosen.
I still live in the old neighborhood, though it has changed enormously; it’s filled with young models and dot-com-ers, chic cafes and expensive shops. It’s almost impossible to imagine the streets as they once were.
Lisa and Frank on their wedding day, 1990
Lisa and Frank on their wedding day, 1990
Julia's wedding at St. Patrick's Old Cathedral on Mott Street, 1992
Prince Street Girls
hand-made Risograph
Yellow Magic Books, 2013
Prince Street Girls revisited notebook, 2013
Prince Street Girls book, published by Yellow Magic, 2013
Prince Street Girls
TBW (These Birds Walk), 2017
Cover of Prince Street Girls book published by TBW, 2017
Spread from Prince Street Girls book published by TBW, 2017
Spread from Prince Street Girls book published by TBW, 2017
Spread from Prince Street Girls book published by TBW, 2017
Prince Street Girls, 1976-1979
Higher Pictures, New York
2017
Poster for Prince Street Girls at Higher Pictures, 2017
Carol poses in front of her photograph at the Prince Street Girls exhibit at Higher Pictures, 2017
Group photo at Higher Pictures exhibition, 2017
