Hunts Point, Bronx

Yesterday I took the D train with Hilary to Yankee Stadium, then transferred to the downtown 4 train to 125th Street, where we transferred again to the uptown 6 train, which heads into the Bronx then takes a sharp right to travel along the southern edge of the south Bronx, stopping at Hunts Point Avenue. Temperatures of 100+ degrees made for a hot trek out on to Garrison Avenue, where Hilary took the above photo of a young couple lounging at the front of an auto body shop.

I first visited Hunts Point in 1998 and I go back every now and again. It's classic Bronx urban desolation. There is poverty and prostitution, high pollution and three enormous food distribution markets, said to be the largest in the U.S.A: trucks bring meat, fruit and veg from 49 states and 55 countries to be processed into smaller chunks for fastfood, restaurant and supermarket chains and stores. And other household goods: you can, for example, buy toilet roll in Hunts Point, but it's where you go to buy 2,000 rolls at one go.

[More photos from Hunts Point by Hilary].