Tight Fence
©2010 Craig Ashby
Digital Photograph

Tight Fence is a picture from my street. A tall fence that has been in the neighborhood as long as I have lived here. A fence with a mesh so tight it’s hard to get your fingers in the spaces.

This area is now home to the displaced Chelsea flea market. After the condominium boom there was nowhere for them to go but north. It hasn’t done as well since the move.

The main problem is the diversity of materials on sale now. The old flea markets had everything. Old photographs and bits of ephemera right alongside great antiques right beside ethnographic art.

The new incarnation sees less of everything. Less diversity. Less overall product. And far less quality of goods. It is a sad affair that can barely fill the street between two avenues.

Like most moves it weeded out both the good and the bad. This is one of the failures of change. And within change, the ultimate failure of gentrification.