Security & Trust

I'm always stunned by the long line of locks that march up and down the doorframes of New Yorkers apartments. I can understand one lock, but three and sometimes four? Who are we keeping out of our apartments?

Coming from such a small town where everyone knows most everyone, locks are rarely used on cars or houses. This is a blessing and joy - this knowing our neighbors and trusting. Everywhere I turn in the city, it appears on the surface that there is a general lack of trust in your fellow man, but when I think about the city and the people who call it home, I think it takes an incredible amount of trust in others just to exist, let alone thrive. Trust that when you leave your house to catch the train for work, that the man at the Deli actually gives your kosher food when you ask for it. Trust that the person sitting next to you on the subway isn't going to harm you or steal from you. Trust that the person driving the subway isn't drunk or angry and is alert and aware and will get to your destination safely. Everywhere I look, I see strangers trusting one another, whether they consciously realize it or not.

Today, as I was photographing the locks in my friends apartments. Afterwards, looking through the images, I noticed that I had caught my own shadow in some of the images and I have spent the rest of the day contemplating my own inner locks and blocks, walls and defense mechanisms used to keep others out and myself in...