Carlos and Boogie on the subway heading for 42nd Street: Ricky Flores’s best photograph

‘These are my boys on the 6 train. Carlos, on the left, had just come out of the army – and Boogie’s just being Boogie’

When I was 18, I came into an inheritance from my father. I used it to buy a Pentax K1000. I knew nothing about photography, but a close friend had recently purchased a 35mm camera. I loved the way it felt in my hand.

I grew up in the Bronx, my parents were Puerto Rican. After my father died when I was five, my mom and I moved to a small apartment in South Bronx so she could be near her sister. I grew up in the centre of a vibrant community. In the summertime, everybody was out on the streets. The pumps would be open, there’d be games of dominoes, men would be playing congas. Every bodega was owned by Puerto Ricans – walking down the block I’d hear everybody speaking Spanish, like my parents always had.

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Carlos and Boogie on the subway heading for 42nd Street: Ricky Flores’s best photograph

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