Celebrating Women’s History Month

Meet Leticia Barboza, NYCHA’s Photographer (Who Goes the Extra Mile – Sometimes Vertically)

The work of NYCHA Staff Photographer Leticia Barboza – whose handiwork you’ve seen in many of the articles here – aligns perfectly with the theme of this year’s Women’s History Month: Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories. And Ms. Barboza is known for going the extra mile on her photoshoots – even if she has to make the trip vertically. To snap an aeriel shot of Jacob Riis Houses in Manhattan, she went on a rooftop, and to get a shot of Ocean Bay Apartments in Queens, she climbed up a water tower ladder – all under the guidance of the appropriate NYCHA staff, of course.

“The only way I could get the shot of Riis Houses was through the open shutters of a tiny, grated window in the rooftop,” Ms. Barboza said. “But I had to point the lens above a pigeon’s nest first.” To shoot photos of Ocean Bay Apartments, Ms. Barboza climbed up a metal ladder on the exterior of the development’s water tower. “That’s when the last editor of NYCHANow started calling me Spiderman,” she said.

Ms. Barboza learned photography from the preeminent African-American photographer, Anthony Barboza, her father. At 18, he gave his daughter her first camera, a point-and-shoot Canon. “He said, ‘Go and be creative.’ I came back with photos of a friend’s legs and shoes, and he said, ‘This is wonderful! It’s so creative!'”

Ms. Barboza had already been working in her father’s photography studio for three years as one of his photo assistants. There, she watched her father photograph prominent African-American athletes and artists, including basketball player Earvin “Magic” Johnson Jr., hip hop DJ pioneer Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, and singer and actress Vanessa Williams.  

At 19, Ms. Barboza’s photographs for a hair salon advertisement ran in the hip culture magazine Details. “I attribute a lot of what happened to me professionally to my father,” Ms. Barboza said. “He’s my mentor, and we’re always talking photography.”

“I think I’ve done a lot of amazing photos at NYCHA,” Ms. Barboza added. “It is a wonderful opportunity that I am blessed with every day. I love interacting with the people I photograph. I love what I do.”

Of the approximately 20,000 photo shoots Ms. Barboza has done in her 15 years as a NYCHA photographer, her favorites are of employees. “I love shooting photo essays of employees doing their jobs,” she said. “It’s exciting to photograph NYCHA employees at work. I love anything employee-related – it really shows the behind-the-scenes. It’s not made-up stuff: It’s real, it’s on-the-job/on-the-work NYCHA stuff, and it’s challenging.”

As the only staff photographer at NYCHA, workdays for Ms. Barboza get jam-packed: She drives between two to three different photo shoots a day, with assignments spanning NYCHA’s office buildings as well as any of the hundreds of NYCHA developments across all five boroughs.

“Leticia is a professional who goes above and beyond to capture the ‘money shots,” Millie Molina, Senior Manager for Events & Communications Services, said. “Whether she dons a hard hat to enter the trenches, climb rooftops to photograph the NYCHA developments in the city’s skyline borough-wide, or enjoys taking photos at events of residents and/or staff, she steps up to the plate. Leticia, aka ‘Tish,’ is a one-woman shop and takes pride in her work. She is a true asset to my team, the Department of Communications, and NYCHA!”

While Ms. Barboza’s photos of employees are at the workplace, her photos of NYCHA residents are usually at their homes. “I love photographing residents,” she said. “I am honored when I am invited into their homes to take photos of their families.”

The photos she took for The NYCHA Journal about NYCHA’s Family Re-entry Program are among her favorite series. The Family Re-entry Program enables people who have been recently released from incarceration to live with their families in NYCHA developments and supports them as part of the transition. “My photos show that those who have been incarcerated are human and have families like anyone else,” Ms. Barboza noted.

She also enjoys photographing children: “The photo shoots of children at NYCHA developments receiving donated toys for Christmas are always very impactful,” she said. “Children seem more open to being photographed, whereas the adults are more self-conscious. The adults are very concerned about how they look in pictures, but the kids – they are free.”

Ms. Barboza said she is one of those adults who dislikes being photographed, adding, “That’s why I’m behind the camera.”