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Route 26, Vernon, NY 1976
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Alice, showing us her family plot and pointing to where she will be burried, Knoxboro, NY 1977
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Pauline, a hermit on Moscow Hill in the town of Brookfield, NY, 1977
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Livestock Exchange, West Winfield, NY 1978
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The barber shop at Burton's Livestock Excahnge. The man sitting in the barber's chair and the one to the far left are two of the Ward brothers, who were the subjects of the 1992 film, "Brother's Keeper," by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinovsky and were accused of murdering their third brother, Delbert, who died under mysterious cirumstances - later adquited.
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Burton's Livestock Exchange, Vernon, NY. I spent a couple of years going to livestock, quite an intesting theatrical arene. I was often the only woman there and at the beginning the guys would say, "it will break your camera little lady." But after a while they got used to me and barely noticed my presence.
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Sunday Joe, had been left in an orphanage by his mother when he was a kid and had just gotten out at age 30 something. We hired hin to help out with chores. though he was a little demented he wasn't a bad fellow and for a while he lived iwith us in the house. Knoxboro, NY 1977
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The Lemeries, Howard & Ruth, our next door neighbors, Knoxboro, NY 1979
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Bernie, Father's Day, Vernon, NY 1978
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Rainbow Young, Utica's only street musician, Utica, NY 2016
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Sal Amico in the foreground at Tinys Bar & Grill, Utica, NY 1997
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Reward for missing for dissapeared girl, Ivory Green, Utica, NY 2012
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Oneida Square...those public phones are long gone, Utica, NY 1984
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All Alone, bus stop, Utica, NY 2014
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Commanders Day, Griffith Air Force Base, 1983
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9/11 Commemoration 2002, New York Mills, NY
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Memorial Day, Utica, NY, 1987
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"Gone But NOt Forgotten, Vietnam Memorial, Utica, NY 2015
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Schuyler Street Army, kids playing at war, Utica, NY 2010
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Celebrating Desert Storm, New York Mills, NY, 1992
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Community Garden, Utica, NY 2010
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Sylvan Beach, NY 1978
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Hope Street Basketball game, Utica, NY 2003
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With freinds on Seventh Lake, Adirondacks, NY1999
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Sylvan Beach, NY, 2010
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Refugee Day, Utica, NY 2005
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Shared Traditions, learning Englsih through looking at art, Utica, NY 2014
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Shared Traditions, learning English by looking at art, Utica, NY 2014
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Shared Traditions, learning English by looking at art 2017
Public Story
The Knoxboro - Utica - Years
Credits:
sylvia de swaan
Date of Work: 12/31/69 - Ongoing
Updated: 10/30/17
In 1976 I moved with my son and second husband to Upstate New York, a rambling old house in a hamlet named Knoxboro. We heated with wood and coal, had chickens, a big garden, my son went to the local school and my husband and I took photos of the neighbors and small town life which was so different from the city life and ambience I came from. Before that I’d lived in New Orleans, Mexico City, New York City, and multiple other stops in my life’s trajectory, leading back to my birthplace in Romania.
Soon after our arrival I wrote in my journal, ….”I sit here before my worktable, the same one I had in New Orleans, similar to one I had Mexico City. Sometimes it is hard for me to imagine that I’m at a different place than the one where I’ve always been…other times I wonder if I’m still the same person calling myself I. As in every other place where I’ve lived, there are moments when I ask myself what am I doing here? Always feeling at least a partial pull to someplace else…other cities other people. But strangely Central New York has become home and I’ve by now lived here longer than anywhere else.”
Eventually my husband and I separated, my son went off to school and I moved to Utica to be near my job as Executive Director of Sculpture Space, an international residency program for professional artists. From photographing rural life I turned to post industrial urban scenes and the many rituals, festivals, demonstrations that punctuate each year.
In recent years we’ve seen an influx of immigrants from all the world’s war zones and Utica has become known as the “city that loves refugees,” a more interesting multi-cultural place.