At the home of a landlord
by Skip Schiel

By Skip Schiel, written on December 21, 2005

On Dec 17 I attended a housing rally near my neighborhood. This was at the house of Francis X Colannino, owner of the Bradford apartments in Lawrence. He's opted out of the federally financed HUD program for low income renters, threatening to dramatically raise rents on his mostly Hispanic tenants. Organized by the Massachusetts Alliance of HUD tenants, a contingent came down en masse in a bus, joined dissidents here, including some from the Eviction Free Zone where I first heard about this. They paraded up and down the sidewalk in front of his house at 8 Walnut Ave. using a bullhorn they broadcast to his neighbors how he is able to afford such fine style.

Following a tip taught me by another rally-street photographer, I watched for high-energy people and followed them. Standing out easily was a middle age woman, short and trim, wearing a fiery red jacket and dark blue stocking cap, eventually speaking thru a sound system aimed at the house. I photographed her extensively, trying to render something of her chutzpah.

While doing this, trying to show her with the mike and the house in the bkgd, a friend signaled me to notice the young boy in front of her, perhaps her son. I then concentrated on him, learning only later while reviewing the photos that I'd inadvertently made the photo she saw, showing him with an adoring look at his mother.