PORTFOLIOS: Arabbers of Baltimore

ARABBERS STABLES  

My Arabber Portfolio was published in  

FADER Magazine, October 2006 

ARABBERS Stables, Baltimore Maryland 1988 

This project began as the documentation of the Arabbers and their stables in Baltimore, Maryland.  

The word Arabber is not used to indicate ethnic origin but to define a merchant who peddles produce while walking along-side a pony pulling a cart of vegetables and fruit.  

At time I photographed during in 1988, there were only five Arabbers stables remaining.My favorite on was Retreat Street Stable between North and Pennsylvania Ave, because Mr. Bilal took me under his wing. 

The stables housed working horses as well as many pet ponies, horses and occasionally, goats and roosters. Adult men worked and visited the stables while neighborhood boys cleaned up in exchange for riding privileges. Young men, teenagers, care for their horses as though they were new cars and rode these pets on the city streets.  

I will forever be grateful to the men and boys who allowed me into their world and taught me how to ride bare back through the streets of Baltimore. There were no women in this world, it was a male oasis. Showing my dog-pit bull and primate photographs and giving proof prints granted me access.  

Horses, ponies, goats, and chickens in the city - I was in heaven. I focused upon the kids, who had so much fun as I did.  

Baltimore city ordinances were later imposed to curtail the Arabbers and the stables. I did not realize how quickly the stables would disappear. I found this African American southern tradition of tremendous pride in maintaining horses again Philadelphia.