Photojournalist Angela Peterson’s work features six black-and-white prints onto which she hand-painted color, outlining one man’s glasses in a vibrant red and rouging the cheeks of faces she brought to life.
Peterson, part of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel staff, spent 15 months capturing images of the residents of Milwaukee’s Greentree-Teutonia Apartments through the O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism, part of Marquette University’s Diederich College of Communication.
The color work is a process that requires Peterson to apply photographic paints with toothpicks and cotton swabs. Her aim: To highlight details in the portraits she’s captured.
In this medium, Peterson brings a different sort of creativity than in typical news photography. It’s a technique she returned to for this project after about a 10-year hiatus.
Each image makes her consider how the color of a boy’s shirt, for instance, will look against the rust red, bright white and pink of those worn by those surrounding him.
These images are gateways to the stories and lives of people at Greentree.
About this project
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel photographer Angela Peterson spent 15 months at Greentree-Teutonia Apartments, a public housing complex on Milwaukee’s north side. Through the O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism at Marquette University, Peterson took thousands of photographs, kept a journal, and wrote stories capturing the heartache and triumph from a community that is often overlooked and misunderstood. She was assisted by Marquette students Isabel Bonebrake and Megan Woolard. Marquette University and administrators of the program played no role in the reporting, editing or presentation of this project.
Project credits
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Photos of residents of Milwaukee’s Greentree Apartments take on new life
Reporting by Alison Dirr, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
