Portraits Of Boston: The Things Said

“In five days, I’ll be 96 years old. I never smoked, and I never had any stress. I was dumb and worked low-level jobs with no responsibility. I worked until I was 84, with two jobs. I worked at an office until five o’clock, and then I went to work as a waitress — it was a happy job, feeding people. Then you take your uniform off, and your job is done. But somebody has to do the stressful jobs, too.”

“Do you have any regrets?”

“Oh, I’ve made lots of mistakes.”

“With education and jobs?”

“No, no. With people. And that hurts the most — the things you’ve said to people.”

Portraits of Boston is a project of independent photographer Ivan Velinov. He is regularly sharing some of his favorite portraits with WBUR. Visit his website to see the hundreds of portraits he has taken on the streets of Boston.