Alex Boerner

PORTRAITS I

A man in a white suit stands out among the rest at a black-tie fundraiser for Martin Memorial Medical Center held in an airport hangar at the Martin County Airport in Stuart, FL.
   
Poe Boy Studios, Hialeah, FL. Photographed for FADER Magazine
   
Tyrone Anthony is a veteran of the U.S. Army who lost both of his legs in the Korean War. For 15 years he has lived in Camp Gordon, a community made up of army barracks that have been relocated and are now used as low income housing in Vero Beach, FL. Anthony receives $604 per month in disability income. His rent is $400 per month.
     
  
Julie Collins smokes a cigarette in her apartment in Fort Pierce, FL. Julie is living with AIDS, which she contracted from her husband. She has become an outspoken advocate of AIDS awareness and education in the area. St. Lucie County, which encompasses Fort Pierce, has some of the highest per capita rates of infection in the state of Florida among different demographics, and has the highest per capita rate particularly among african american women.
   
101-year-old Marian Wardell-Qualey sits up in the hospital bed inside of her home in Hobe Sound, FL. An artist and former art teacher, Wardell-Qualey now suffers from many ailments, including macular degeneration, which combined with her otherwise deteriorating state of health, forced her to give up painting the portraits of flowers and nudes that hang on her own walls.
  
As a teenager, Raymond Smith, of Palm City, FL, traveled from California to upstate New York to attend the Woodstock festival.
     
  
Oliver North waits backstage in the green room at the Riverside Theatre, in Vero Beach, FL, before speaking to an audience as part of the theater's "Distinguished Lecturers Series."
   
Easter Sunday at the Church of God in Christ, No. 2: Word of Fire.
   
     
  
From left, veterans Lou Contino, 86, with the Air Force in WWII, Al Maccini, 71, with the Marine Corps in the Korean War, and Frank Brajak, 76, with the Coast Guard in WWII, celebrate Veterans Day over beers at the VFW Post 10210 in Sebastian, FL.
   
Mercy Ross of Gifford, FL, stands for a portrait in front of the Macedonia Historic Baptist Church, founded in 1908, and the site of Gifford's Martin Luther King Day celebration earlier that afternoon.
   
     
  
   
Angie Ashworth, 28, makes herself breakfast in the apartment that is attached to her mother's home where she lives in Fort Pierce, FL. In high school Angie could bench press over 300 pounds, but she now suffers from a number of ailments including lymphedema, which causes fluid to pool in her abdomen and legs, creating areas of her body that are difficult to keep clean, and cellulitis, a bacterial infection that has created large open wounds on her legs. Her hand was burned in a house fire three years ago. Skin grafts used to cover the open sores on her legs have helped as she slowly works toward recovery from the cellulitis. Her mobility has declined, however, as a result of the weight gain and pain associated with the lymphedema.