06/24/2025
In 2018, we started a personal project called Grassroots, following a local political campaign in Brooklyn.
Not because we were interested in being campaign photographers but because we were craving something we felt we had lost: community, purpose, idealism.
The candidate was .barkan, an acclaimed journalist. His campaign manager was . What drew me in was the energy of the team around them, young, scrappy, tightly knit. Outsiders in many ways, but united by a belief in something better.
This was never about endorsement. It was about witnessing a moment.
A group of people knocking on doors, organizing from the ground up, and holding each other when the results came in and didn’t go their way.
Politics gets a bad rap and rightfully so, most of the time. But many people, especially on the local level, are doing it from a deep sense of service and community. And often, at great personal costs. Wishing the candidates well tonight, especially those with less machine backing.
Today Zohran is running for the New York City mayor and from an underdog he became one of the favorites.It’s amazing to see when eight years has taken him.
