The Orange Line

Jack Lueders-Booth's The Orange Line is a tenderly produced archive of a community that lived and worked along the southern route of Boston Public Transportation’s Orange Line: an antiquated, clattering, overhead railway that was constructed in 1901. The pavement vibrating din of this deteriorating railway, its unsightliness, its increasing crime rate, and its inefficiency depressed property values in the neighbourhoods that it served. An unintended consequence was affordable housing for this largely low-income population.

In 1985, the southern section of the Orange Line was scheduled for demolition and rerouting, which seeded fears of rising rents, possible displacement, and the loss of public transportation to metropolitan Boston. Change seemed imminent, and displacement probable.

“These photographs were made in the interest of preserving some record of the people who lived and worked along the southern stretch of Boston’s Orange Line.” - Jack Lueders-Booth

In 1970, Jack Lueders-Booth left a business career at age 35 to pursue photography. He taught photography at Harvard University from 1970 to 1999 where he was three times nominated for Harvard’s Joseph P. Levinson Memorial Award for Outstanding Teaching. He then went on to teach photography at The Rhode Island School of Design, Tufts University, The school of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and The Art institute of Boston.