When we think of artists lofts, it’s likely that a similar picture comes to most of our minds. Maybe it involves paint cans, canvases, instruments or half empty coffee mugs and ashtrays. Regardless of what we each imagine, a place like this does exist outside of our dreams at 345 Eldert Street. Located on the east side of Bushwick, Brooklyn, the Eldert Lofts are busting at the walls with artist types. Although these lofts fulfill most our dreams by appearance, it hasn’t always been sunny days and good times for the building’s residents.

345 Eldert Residents Calendar Lola Who Fashion Music Photography blog 2Gentrification is definitely a thing that’s happening to cities all over the world, taking away affordable living for many and replacing it with extravagant condos and people with real jobs and steady income. This is exactly what happened to the once affordable 345 Eldert Lofts whose residents experienced a dramatic eviction in 2011.

Here is where musician and photographer Christiana Martin comes into the picture with a calendar full of her eccentric neighbours posing in the nude.

“I started this thing about three and a half years ago now, and it’s been a great artistic outlet and community interaction,” writes Martin in her Indigogo campaign page. “I wanted to start a more serious documentation of a handful of Eldert’s characters. So I embarked on recruiting my friends and neighbours to take off their clothes for a few photographic portraits while we still look good, and are still able to get away with a bit of public nudity here in our beloved hood.”

Although the concept may seem strange initially, the photographs have helped to pull the buildings’ community back together since the evictions.

Through the sales of the calendar on her Indiegogo page, money is put towards a project that will benefit the small but stable loft-living community. It’s quirky, it’s unique and it’s for a good cause, so what else do we really need?

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Photos by Christiana Martin
Text by Cianda Bourrel