The Gentleman Reporter in Forbidden Harlem and Bronx

This audacity and elegance would be his keys to opening the doors of Harlem in 1970, his most remarkable story. Back then, no white person dared set foot in New York’s Black neighbourhood. Once a haven for an up-and-coming African-American elite, a hope ‘ghettoised’ by poverty and discrimination. “Too dangerous,” murmured New York friends. A challenge for the gentleman- adventurer, exasperated by prejudices that he intended to confront. Yes, he was given a rough reception but, when threatened straight out of the gate he replied to a colossus of a man – who would become his guide: “It would be better to help me than hassle me.”

With the same aplomb, he arrived unexpectedly at the headquarters of the Black Panthers, who warmed to his ways and provided him with unobtrusive protection.

Garofalo did nothing to hide the poverty, drugs and violence that reigned over the neighbourhood, but preferred to linger on the teeming political and cultural activity in this city within the city. The tense atmosphere was unwound with laughter, easy smiles and kindness, towards this stranger. Seven years later, Jack Garofalo would explore the Bronx with the same powers of observation.

These two stories – written more than 50 years ago and predictably peppered with some dated thoughts the contemporary reader might snag upon – are still unquestionably modern. His humanist eye does not lie, his lens captures life rather than death.

“In the raging madness of Harlem, the journey could have ended badly”, La Ficelle mused. “Fear is contagious there, and so is hatred. Less so, though, than confidence and hope.”

In collaboration with Paris Match