‘How Will We Be Remembered?’: Irene Shwachman’s West End Photographs

Abstract

This article examines The Boston Document, a documentary photography project that chronicled urban renewal in Boston from 1959–1968. The project was created by a largely unknown yet crucial documenter of Boston, Irene Shwachman (1915–1988). A large portion of the document focuses on the demolition of the West End, a neighborhood home to lower-class and immigrant residents. In the early 1950s, the Boston Redevelopment Authority labeled the neighborhood a slum, and implemented a redevelopment plan. The West End’s ‘renewal’ resulted in the destruction of a vibrant, diverse neighborhood and the displacement of thousands of residents. This article argues that Shwachman reinterprets a documentary photography methodology to incorporate the perspectives and histories of city citizens in her chronicle of urban change. Through this approach, I argue that Shwachman’s photographs present a subjective, personal investigation into Boston, centering the perspectives of city residents and underscoring how people shape and activate their urban landscape. In examining The Boston Document in this renewed context, this article reclaims histories and perspectives removed from Boston’s landscape through redevelopment.