Alan Lewin proudly displays the awards he has won for his work in photography. - Photo by Tashieka Mair

WESTERN BUREAU:

Paradise Rowe, an inner-city enclave close to the Montego Bay city centre, is stained by stigma common to hundreds of ghettos across Jamaica. But amid the difficult conditions there, popular photographer Alan Lewin has refused to be confined by that snapshot of poverty.

Since graduating from Albion All-Age at 14, Lewin has been a veritable jack of all trades: racehorse tipster with the Western Mirror newspaper, sports and entertainment writer, promoter, tailor and artiste manager. Recently, he was lauded by the Press Association of Jamaica for his award-winning photography.

With an absentee father and a mother who turned him over to his aunt, Lewin, unlike some of his peers who resorted to crime, had a fixation on big ideas and big dreams.

"Living in Paradise Rowe was very rough because I didn't have the support of a father, but my mother would come and look for me now and then," Lewin recalled.

Not drawn to violence

He said that although he lived in a community wracked by violence, he was never tempted to divert from the good principles his aunt taught him.

"Gun violence was around me, but I tried not to get involved or carried away. Everybody in the ghetto can't have the same down mind," he said. "I wanted to be a don, but not in the sense that people would be afraid of, but a don in the sense that I would be able to help people in my community get jobs and do something good for themselves. I wouldn't mind getting work for the youths in my community."

Beacon of hope

Lewin, who has had ambitions of becoming a radio announcer, said he has always had a desire to go back to school. He said, however, that the odd jobs throughout his life have helped to strengthen his character.

Now in his early 30s, unmarried with no children, the struggles of his early upbringing in Paradise Rowe are now behind him. In fact, the community now sees him as a beacon of hope.

tashieka.mair@gleanerjm.com