Dreams Are Made Of

Text by Luiza Swierzawska. Images courtesy of Uptown Photowalk.

Every month on a Sunday morning, a group of photography enthusiasts gathers for a few hours to wander around New York City. Their skillset and background are completely secondary.

What matters is their shared passion for taking photos and creating community along the way. 

This is the mission that the Uptown Photowalk’s founder, Emmanuel Abreu, stands by.

As a photographer himself, he believes that the act of making images can nurture empathy and bridge divides. Abreu sees visual storytelling as a remedy to the increasingly complicated world, where the truth is often contested. 

We sat down at Recirculation, a bookstore in Washington Heights where Abreu regularly volunteers — another proof of his dedication to the community. Surrounded by books and records, he shares stories of how the Uptown Photowalk came about and his hopes for its future.

Could you start by introducing yourself and telling me what you do?

My name is Emmanuel Abreu. I’m an Uptown resident and freelance photographer.

Since 2011, I’ve run Uptown Photowalk with Carlos Deschamps. It’s a great community of photographers who walk around all over New York and other places, like New Jersey. In the past, I’ve also hosted other Photowalks with the photographers in Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Mexico.

What’s the story behind the Uptown Photowalk?

It was very organic. When I began my photography journey, I started meeting other photographers Uptown, and we would just go on walks. I remember meeting two photographers who invited me out to shoot, and I was like, oh yeah, let’s do a photowalk.

I invited a friend of mine who wasn’t even a photographer, and the four of us just walked around. I literally named the folder Uptown Photowalk, and that was the beginning of the thought.

One year, Instagram had this initiative called InstaMeet, meant to get people out to meet and do photo walks. I thought, let me do an Uptown one.

We met in Harlem, walked around, and a good 20 people showed up. From there, it felt like, ‘Oh, I should do this more often.’ I started doing it every couple of months, and when I met Carlos, he convinced me to make it a monthly thing. We’ve been doing it every month since we came back from lockdown after COVID.

What was the trigger that made you think “OK, this needs to be a regular thing”?

I love to walk. I mean, I walked here and it took me about an hour. And I’m going to walk back. I was already constantly going out to walk with my camera. And I also love the community. I love just getting people together who like the same things.

Last year, I finally figured out the thing that drives me to do photo walks. It only took 15 years. Because I always felt it, but I couldn’t define it.

I like to share awe. You know that feeling when you’re doing something and you feel this amazing connection to what’s happening?

I started doing these pop-up meetings. For example, taking pictures of the moon and sun behind the Empire State Building, or running around getting cherry blossom photos all over New York. Those moments were mostly in the middle of the night or really early. I invited people to join me. And people actually came out. One meeting was at five in the morning. Some people had to get up at three thirty or four o’clock to come from Brooklyn all the way uptown to see the sunrise hitting the cherry blossom trees. 

They were all crazy tired but then when they experienced what I invited them to experience, they all realized: ‘Oh, this was totally worth it.’ And that’s what I want to share in the photowalks.

It’s not about the shot, but the experience you can only get when you’re out there. 

The baseline is just meeting people. A lot of people have met each other, have dated, have worked together. I found out one of the photowalkers is my neighbor. We’ve lived in the same building for years and didn’t know each other until the photowalk.

I like the connections that are created organically but also those moments of shared awe. That’s the best thing. Hard to create on purpose but when it happens, oh my God, it’s fantastic.

Why do you think it’s important for a community to engage in art and things, activities like that?

There’s a writer who wrote Bowling Alone — Robert B. Putnam. He writes about the collapse and revival of the American community and uses bowling as an example of how in America, you used to have a lot of groups of people who enjoyed doing the same thing together, whatever it was – bowling teams, photo walks or watching movies. 

It still exists but there’s been a decline. And it correlates exactly with the increase in divisiveness in this country.

What his argument is – and his research shows this, is that when you have people, for example, in a bowling league, that come from different places, you could have a very conservative guy and a very liberal guy come together in a bowling league. And the initial reason they’re there is to bowl. They’re not there to talk politics. They’re there to bowl and they’re there to root for each other.

So, this little community is formed with the sole purpose of just doing the thing that you already love to do.

Then you become friendly. Then you start caring for each other. You don’t know all the rest yet. You just start caring about this person because they’re doing the thing with you. You’re not thinking like, who did you vote for? You’re not thinking any of that, it doesn’t even matter because you’re already basically family and you’re spending so much time together.

I’m hoping that by the time any political thing is talked about, we’re at a point where I already like your photography, you already taught me how to use the aperture better. By that point, it’s like, I can’t hate you because you already helped me or I already helped you. We’re already connected somehow. Hopefully that idea of the community’s already built in, so anything else doesn’t matter as much.

Do you have a lot of regulars joining the Photowalks? 

Yeah, mostly from Uptown. Although there’s this one kid who’s in deep Brooklyn and he shows up everywhere. I love this kid. He’s like, he’s like 18 or 17. He’s always late, which is funny because every time you see him, he’s running towards you. He’s an incredible photographer.

Speaking of community, he actually dropped his camera during one of the Photowalks. Two days later, I posted about it saying like, ‘Hey, this kid lost his camera. Can we raise some money to get him a new one?’ And, not even kidding, within like 48 hours, people donated their equipment to him. He lost the camera, a lens and a tripod. And those three things were given to him. 

What do you hope to see next for the photowalk?

I want to continue this as a place where people can depend on doing this thing every month. I want it to be more structured, but it’s hard because Carlos and I have different work times or personal things that we’re doing. So we need more people to host.

But the number one thing I really, really want is to be an educational hub. I want to host more workshops, especially for kids. I want kids to learn how to use cameras. And now, more than ever, I want kids to be able to truthfully tell their stories. You know how important that is right now, especially.

I think the best way to combat all the inaccuracies that are in real time right now being put out there is to hold on to the truth as much as you can. And I think the best way I can help is by sharing my expertise in this stuff and also creating a space where other people can share their expertise.

That’s what I want Uptown Photowalk to become.