The People of Chelsea Project

The People of Chelsea Project was born from a deep love of the city of Chelsea, for its rich culture, vibrant beauty, and resilient community. Just across the harbor and only a bridge away from Boston, yet culturally distinct from its larger metropolitan neighbor, Chelsea is too often overlooked.

This project features and celebrates its residents, businesses, and institutions – from activists to entrepreneurs, from city officials to students, from old timers to newcomers. The People of Chelsea project is a positive mirror to the community and an homage to those who make the city work every day across ages, experiences, and languages. Particularly during COVID-19, the project was a meaningful departure from the disaster-oriented media narratives about Chelsea, and each showing of this work became a source of civic pride. Through strong local collaborations, we have highlighted a community that is so much more than its pandemic losses: a Chelsea that is resilient, creative, courageous, and just.

Darlene DeVita

Darlene DeVita is a photographer and 21-year resident of Chelsea, MA— a tiny, dense city just across the harbor from Boston. For the last nine years, Darlene has been falling deeper in love with the city and its people as she has been photographing them.

Darlene’s goal is to give a presence to a resilient community whose voice has never really been heard. In fairly recent history, Chelsea suffered two devastating fires, went into receivership in the 1990s, and was impacted “first and worst” in the state by COVID-19.

In these portraits, Darlene inserts a backdrop that belonged to her late sister, who was also a photographer. The background both honors the subject and silently keeps her sister present in her daily life and work.

Darlene continues to photograph and gives voice to her city for as long as she feels she can represent it for what it is: a unique city filled with diversity, passion, and love for humanity.

Sarah Putnam

Sarah Putnam joined Darlene on the People of Chelsea Project in 2018, primarily to help in Spanish-speaking situations, conducting and editing the interviews, and collaborating on the photographs by providing another set of eyes. Sarah has been a writer and freelance photographer for national publications and organizations for decades. Her writing has ranged from feature stories to interviews to reviews; her photographs have appeared in magazines and books, been included in both group and solo exhibitions, and she has produced multimedia pieces for the web. She was a Bunting Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute.