2009

Just a few days ago I was in Queens, NY to visit a company, and I was so impressed by the neighborhoods I drove through. Just a few minutes out of Manhattan, it was very quiet, and felt a lot like so many suburbs you might find around the US. I just noticed this press release from a Queens-based photographer, and wanted to share it. It looks like a great event.

Queens Economic Development Corporation invites you to the launch of ThisIsOurQueens by photographer Michelle Kawka at the Queens Visitors Center at the Queens Center Mall on Saturday Dec 5 from 12 noon to 3pm. The Queens Visitors Center is located at the Queens Center mall (ground floor) at 90-15 Queens Blvd, Elmhurst, NY 11373 right across from the Applebees.

Photographer Michelle Kawka will be taking photos of participants in front of the wall size map of Queens.

Point out your neighborhood and Smile!

ThisIsOurQueens is a project that highlights the diversity of New York City’s borough of Queens. Queens County, New York is a borough of over 2.2 million people. It is the most ethnically diverse county in the world. Forty-six percent of the population is foreign born and over 138 languages are spoken throughout the borough. Showing a series of 200 portraits, ThisIsOurQueens depicts the lives of the people who live and work in her neighborhood, Queens, New York. This Is Our Queens was named one of the best projects of 2009 by the American Society of Media Photographers.

Michelle Kawka is an award winning, internationally exhibited New York-based photographer specializing in portraiture, lifestyle, corporate, fashion, travel, public relations and architectural work for a wide variety of advertising and editorial clients. Her work has been exhibited at the Queens Museum of Art, the City Hall of the 9th Arrondissement, Paris France, the Queens Hospital Center, The Langston Hughes Cultural Center & Library, the Gallery of Social and Political Art in Boston, the New England School of Photography & the Art-o-Mat in Long Island City, NY.