What does it mean to exist in the shadow of an innovation economy? To live in one of the oldest intellectual capitals of the world – and see opportunity around every corner – but know that it remains just out of reach?

Cambridge, Massachusetts is now one of the top 25 innovation cities in the country and is known for incubating global tech companies and developing life-saving vaccines. While lower-income and working-class families have always struggled here, this tech-driven gentrification model is particularly invasive. It prioritizes wealth building for the financially secure and doesn't consider or incentivize equity .

This series is my response to watching the demographics of my city neighborhoods change, and seeing familiar and loved community spaces redefined by, and for, the benefit of the wealthy. Instead of investing in opportunity for all, replacement, displacement and cultural harm is the norm, as the existing digital, educational, and access gaps widen.

A saint, in its most simple definition, is an ordinary person who lives a courageous and good life, and because of this, is worthy of imitation.

Book of Saints is my way to venerate those most affected by these gaps – neighbors, family, friends, activists, artists, wordsmiths, musicians, city employees, students, the undocumented, and others, by making a visual archive of their portraits, and their disappearing, everyday landscapes.

They, like my own family, are most impacted by the overlooked consequences of an innovation economy, yet continue to create, hustle, love, learn and thrive in spite of it.

Kristen Joy Emack2022 Guggenheim Fellow

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Kristen Joy Emack
2022 Guggenheim Fellow