This article talks about the use of photography to unveil the forgotten New York. Looking at New York you would describe it as one of the U.S busiest cities. Look closer you see the many different people living there the art all around the neighborhoods. This is how far people look when describing New York. Why not look deeper into New York? You will see the crime and poverty running through the streets. The homeless population is often overlooked even though it has been an issue for quite some time. There are so many buildings for living yet still an overwhelming amount of homeless people, who contribute their own structures to the cities by building a shelter using personal belongings and materials found on the streets.
 This article is not to attach New York on its system of dealing with the homeless population, or the lack thereof, but to make a spectacle out of what has been hidden in plain sight. Homes, not homeless, treats homelessness as something you can’t become. Homes are superior to the homeless, but why does the homeless care. The pictures used show that the homeless, not homes, are one in the same. Although, not the socially accepted, the homes built by the homeless are the same as the houses built and lived in by the homes. Life, even though not socially recognized, for the homeless are similar in ways that some have pets. How do you have a dog and be homeless? Same reason why others own dogs: companionship, protection, physical needs…etc.

Mac’s first house, East River, 1992. Margaret Morton. Image courtesy of Leica Gallery

 Morton’s tunnel photographs show not just where the homeless live, but those out to destroy them. Homelessness can’t be defined as a condition of not having a home; because the homeless have homes. Government demolishes these homes because of their lack of valid material and visual appeal. This shows you how unstable a home can be. Making homes and the homeless the same, but what loss is loss from a home losing their home and the homeless losing their home? The feeling of loss is universal but more recognized in the homeless population. Morton’s view on shelter and the lack of shelter on ones physiological state is shown through interviews and even through some of her photographs. Many people in the tunnel stay, while others try their luck outside of them.
 Morton interviews a homeless man named Doug. His description of the east river describes a different,yet closer look at what is seen just by a glance. He says “You may drive by here and see that they are shabby, but I think that if you look again you see this person took the time to build a place that could be comfortable for himself…The person who will take the time to build for himself is the person who still has an interest in himself.“(NERSESSOVA, IRINA) Goals of the situationalist internationalists are to blur the lines between art and life, but I believe Morton’s view is that there is no line. Life is like a work of art. Look beyond what’s hidden behind rusted material to see how we can tell the homes from the homeless.

Sources
NERSESSOVA, IRINA. “Tapestry Of Space: Domestic Architecture And Underground Communities In Margaret Morton’s Photography Of A Forgotten New York.” Disclosure 23 (2014): 26. Advanced Placement Source. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.

   This article looks into the time of discrimination in a new less obvious way, architecture. Robert Moses known as a master builder in New York, was known for his bridge work. More recognized for his intentional bridge design,that lowered bridge heights so that buses wouldn’t be able to pass under them. Why didn’t he want buses? Busses are used majorly by poor and minorities. Bringing unwanted noise and crime. Was this the real reason or was it more to it than they were letting on? Bus systems like MARTA are under criticism today for this very reason, but life is considerably different from the 1970s. In 1974, the city of Memphis, white residents request that a street be closed off, which connects a majority white and black neighborhoods. When brought to the Supreme Court it was ruled as a “routine burden of citizenship and slight inconvenience” (Schindler, S…) Justice Marshall didn’t withhold acknowledging the message hidden behind this.
  Laws and lawmakers which are intended to help prevent racial discrimination are a main contributor to the very things it seeks to prevent. Regulations, requirements, even structural designs are all tactics that lead to discouraging certain groups to migrate over to other locations. Lawrence Lessig’s regulatory theory which states that behavior can be regulated or contained by architecture. (Schindler, S…) Regulations enforced by architecture is harder to identify through the courts because they are less noticeable, not as direct, and generally unfamiliar to the eyes we use to see the world everyday (common eyes). We do have laws that prevent discrimination through architecture, for example, through the Americans with Disabilities Act which gave us handicap parking and ramps. Obvious architectural exclusion or human right that just so happened to involve the changing architectural design to allow accessibility to other places, but how does this differentiate from the low bridges restricting minorities and poor from going into certain neighborhoods?

Example of a low bridge that keeps buses out of certain areas.

  Architectural discrimination is not always intentional. When constructing a new highway or Bridgeway constructors plan on location, traffic accessibility and economic impact. Looking at it as a built environment a highway can divide two neighborhoods, making it inconvenient to associate with each other. Politically, however, according to Lessig “That the Constitutional Court in Germany is in Karlsruhe, while the capital is in Berlin, limits the influence of one branch of government over the other. These constraints function in a way that shapes behavior. In this way, they too regulate.” (Schindler, S…) Here Lessig is not directly acknowledging that there are architectural constraints, but refers to them as “codes”, like technology linking together the behaviors or real world architecture to cyberspace. Legally physical exclusion through the use of architecture can easily be overlooked because structures are built according to laws. Laws made over a century ago to prevent to races from interacting are still used causing neighborhoods to still be segregated.
  This article was to seek attention on the use of architecture to bring together or separate certain people. However you may see the world around you, this article hopes to enlighten the common eyes, scholars, politicians, courts, and citizens’ eyes to see what may seem innocuous and according to law may have meaning to regulate and control the environment around them. Although signs and laws that divide us racially were taken down; new lines were drawn using architecture as the pen.

Sources
Schindler, Sarah. “Architectural Exclusion: Discrimination and Segregation Through Physical Design of the Built Environment.” Yale Law Journal. 124.6 (2015): 1934-2024..Web. 24 Jan. 2016.