Ukrainian health spas, Lubavitch communities, subway life, Romanians... all ethereal, dark and beautiful.

wonderful

This is the way I love my photography, but I often, for the sake of those I'm photographing, and for the sake of not hearing "Why is it so dark? did your flash malfunction?" over and over, go with brighter, more standard exposures.

Being, effectively, born and brought up in a town in the NW of England with strong Ukranian, Polish, Italian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani connections these pics have a resonance for me - life in the 70's (the period they evoke for me) 'seemed' (through the distoring lens of memory) less fraught than our current age.

ditto Mr Daniel's first comment

How would one be ineffectively born, Sig Ghiberti?

I was, actually, born on a continent other than the one in which I was brought up - came home to the UK at age 6 months (this all left no lasting impression upon me)...

So you were actually born. That's reassuring and settles the issue.