Chilling portraits bring together this incredible project by Jeffrey Stockbridge

You will probably recognise Tic-Tac and Tootsie, the most iconic participants of Jeffrey Stockbridge’s now completed project Kensington Blues , from the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize show a couple of years back. Starting in 2008, Jeffrey took a series of gripping portraits and recorded interviews with people that reside along Kensington Avenue in North Philadelphia, an area known for its poverty and high crime rates. The photographer admits that while he attended college in the city he never knew this street existed.

Bridging the gap between “documentary and fine-art photography,” Jeffrey is a photojournalist more than a photographer. Even though his work isn’t brand new, it’s still important to be drawing attention to the awareness he has created for these individuals. Jeffrey’s compassion is quite astonishing, and people would approach him, not shy of telling their stories of drug addiction, prostitution and homelessness.