In 1975, nearly thirty-five years ago, I was riding a bicycle through my neighborhood in Little Italy when suddenly a blast of light flashed into my eyes, blinding me for a moment. Its source was a group of girls fooling around with a mirror trying to reflect the sun on my face. 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. The girls were from small Italian-American families and they were almost all related. I was the stranger who didn’t belong. Little Italy was mostly for Italians then.
The project Prince Street Girls began as a series of incidental encounters. They’d see me coming and call out, “Take a picture! Take a picture!” At the beginning I was making pictures just to share with them. If we met in the market or at the pizza parlor, they would reluctantly introduce me to their parents 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.
Susan Meiselas
Prince Street Girls
Susan Meiselas
From 06 to 30 November, 2013
Galerie Catherine et André Hug
40, rue de Seine / 2, rue de l’Echaudé
75006 Paris
France
Tel/Fax : 01 43 26 93 75
