Letter Carrier, New York. From the series Workers—Portraits of the Working Class in New York 1999–2002. 2000.
“A recollection: In the 1970s, our mailbox was a perfect little aluminum Quonset hut
(...) mounted on a pole. It stood at the end of our driveway at 61 Carriage Trail like a spirit house. Every afternoon, an embryonic reordering of the world took place inside. Things would appear there: letters with airy news from other states; news magazines; my sisters’ copies of Seventeen magazine. Zhou Enlai commingled with Cheryl Tiegs. On Sundays, it was empty. I imagined that inside, it was dark and had an odor of metal. It would be quiet inside our mailbox except for the sound of passing cars, its smart red flag in repose. One morning, a horror awaited at the end of the driveway. Our mailbox had been crushed. Knocked off its proud pillar. Taken down like an animal in the night. I cried for our mailbox and worried the mail would have nowhere to go. It would end up thrown onto the pavement, defenseless against the sky.”
- Richard Renaldi
20% of the photographer’s proceeds will be donated to the Ben Franklin Project, helping in the fight to save the US Postal Service and to protect our democracy. benfranklinproject.com
Copyright © Richard Renaldi
