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Written on the back of this work is: “I was asked by the first scheduled director of American Gangster to photograph the modern day Harlem as if it was Harlem in the 1960s to help the crew get a feel for the time period the movie was supposed to take place in. On the first day, I found myself walking down a sidewalk and passing three African-American men who were wearing stocking skullcaps sitting on a stoop. I said hello and kept walking. I had walked only a few feet when I stopped and realized that I was seeing a memory. In the sixties, men wrapped their heads with actual stockings, but at the time I made this photo, you could buy the skullcap from any corner drug store in Harlem. I turned back and explained to the men about the movie and what I was looking for. I asked them if I could photograph them, and they said, 'Okay.' They seemed to be concerned with more serious issues that had their attention. I did not ask, but I felt the weight of poverty on their shoulders because I had carried that weight myself. I made the photograph and then moved on down the street. It was the very first photograph that I made on that assignment.” — Eli Reed