Born in Marblehead in 1950, Joshua Resnek moved to Chelsea in 1977 and began reporting for the daily Chelsea Record. There he developed a creative partnership with photographer Arnie Jarmak that would span decades and produce a sustained record of the city.
Long before the newsroom, Resnek and Jarmak explored Chelsea as teenagers, stopping at the Resnek family drugstore before walking the city's streets. Their collaboration grew from that childhood friendship. The pair later said they had discussed putting their Chelsea experiences into a book for forty years.
From Journalists to Historians
The work began as journalism: reporting the news and photographing daily life. Through their books, Resnek and Jarmak now also work as historians of Chelsea, preserving firsthand accounts, neighborhood life, and the city's changing communities for later readers. Resnek's narrative and Jarmak's documentary photographs bring complementary perspectives to that history.
Their published collaborations include Turbulent Years in Chelsea, Rugged, and The Last Seder in Little Jerusalem. The Last Four Mayors is the forthcoming fourth volume. In 2021, they donated copies of Turbulent Years in Chelsea to the Chelsea Historical Commission for free distribution to residents.
A reporter's eye and a storyteller's empathy, paired with documentary photography.
Explore the Chelsea history book guides and Chelsea: Triumph & Tragedy. For more of the visual record, visit Arnie Jarmak's documentary photography archive.
The Gloucester Writers Center's presentation of their work offers further context on the collaboration and their Chelsea books.
Read how that partnership began in the newsroom in Reporting Chelsea.