This book was published as part of the Bronx Artist Documentary Project. The photographs created for this project were exhibited at the Andrew Freedman Home in the Bronx, September 13, 2014–October 8, 2014. Other exhibition venues include the Galleries at Krasdale Foods in the Bronx (January 21, 2015–April 8, 2015) and in White Plains (May 1, 2015–August 10, 2015), and the ARTViews Gallery at Montefiore Hospital, Bronx (October 7, 2015–December 31, 2015).
Copyright © 2015 by Judith C. Lane Copyright © 2015 Daniel Hauben and Michael Kamber for their texts All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by any electronic or mechanical means without written permission. Requests for permission to reproduce photographs should be sent directly to the photographers; see page 267 and Directory A (pages 244–257) for their contact information. Requests for permission to reproduce other elements of this book should be sent to: Judith Lane, 3400 Fort Independence St. 2H, Bronx, NY 10463 info@bronxartistdocproject.org First edition, 2015 Publication Director: Judith C. Lane Design & Layout: Jennifer Tomaiolo Editor: Barbara Burn Logo Design: Xavier Figueroa Production and printing: OnTheMark.net www.bronxartistdocproject.org ISBN 978-0-692-43275-4
Printed in China
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction Foreword
6 8
Acknowledgments
10
The Bronx Artist Documentary Project Photographs BxADP Team The Map
239 240
A Great Day in the Bronx: Group Photo
242
Directory A: BxADP Photographers and Visual Artists Directory B: Bronx Arts Alliance Organizations Photographers at Work Photography Credits Index
13
260 267
269
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258
243
The Bronx Artist Documentary Project
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PHOTOGRAPHER RICKY FLORES Ricky Flores was born in New York to Puerto Rican parents in 1961. His father was a merchant seaman and his mother was a garment worker; the family lived in the Tremont section of the Bronx during the early 1960s and moved to the Longwood section after his father’s death. Flores started documenting life in the South Bronx after he purchased a camera with a small inheritance he received from his father. He embarked on a journey of self-discovery that grew out of photographing his friends and family during one of the most turbulent times in the history of the Bronx and New York City. Over the years, Flores has freelanced for the New York Daily News, The New York Times, The City Sun, and The Village Voice. He was recognized for his work on the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, and is a two-time winner of the New York Press Publishers Association Award for Spot News. He has a permanent installation at I.S. 206 in the Tremont section of the Bronx, commissioned by the School Construction Authority, the New York City Board of Education, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. He is currently a photojournalist for The Journal News in Westchester County, New York.
Photo: Ricky Flores
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ARTISTS TATS CRU BIO: It wasn’t a conscious decision to form a collaborative team; that’s pretty much how we’ve always worked. With subways you usually went either in a pair or in a group, to cover more space, or just for safety. Sometimes there would be six or seven of us at a time. BG183: Another reason why we went up as a group is because of the individual talent. You had one guy who was good at characters; another guy was good at something else, and then one guy would have more paint than the next guy, so bring that guy in.... We used to meet up in the 1980s at somebody’s house, and we would all do outlines and show it to the rest of the crew. That way we would have a plan before we got into it. Then somebody would do the characters, or somebody else would jump in there.... After you were done, you’d throw your leftover paint to the next guy so he could use that color, so everybody was blending. Everything we did back then is what we’re doing now. 18
PHOTOGRAPHER RICKY FLORES
TATS CRU: BG183
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PHOTOGRAPHER MARTINE FOUGERON Martine Fougeron is a fine art photographer living and working in New York whose work has been exhibited internationally. Her incisive images of life and culture have made her a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and New York Magazine. Fougeron was born in Paris and studied at LFNY, l’IEP Paris, Wellesley College, and the International Center of Photography. She has been living in New York since 1996 and working as a photographer since 2006, when she graduated from ICP, having turned to photography after a successful career as creative director in the fragrance industry where she was the “nose of the noses” of twenty world-class perfumers. Fougeron’s primary fine art photography project since 2005 has been the “Teen Tribe” series in which she offers an intimate portrait of the lives of her two adolescent sons and their group of friends. The work is held in major private and public collections including the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Steidl will publish a book on her work from this series in 2015. Fougeron started a new project on the South Bronx Trades in 2011, soon after she moved there from the West Village. She creates portraits of workers, interiors, machines, processes, and products, reflecting the vitality and diversity of the heavily industrial neighborhoods of Port Morris and Hunts Point. Fougeron is on the faculty of ICP and has been a guest artist and teacher at Pratt Institute, NYU, and SVA. Photo: Leslie Robert
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ARTIST HARRIET BELAG My uncle was a painter whose studio I loved to visit. I was attracted to the colors in the buckets of paint that he kept on hand. I dug my hands into those paints, and they became a part of me in a very real way. Nothing else gave me the satisfaction that art gave me. I never question, I simply begin working. If you take pleasure in your work, someone else will too. Don’t get too involved in the business of art. Just keep doing the work. Somehow it will all come to fruition. Excerpt from an interview for the BxADP by Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa, 2014
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PHOTOGRAPHER MARTINE FOUGERON
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PHOTOGRAPHER OSJUA AZARRA NEWTON Born and raised in the Bronx, I feel both the honor and, more importantly, the responsibility of photographing these artists who represent my borough. The responsibility of blending with their families. The responsibility of entering a creator’s most intimate place, and of understanding, if only a small fraction, why they create the art they do. In time I learned that these places are not just their studios, but their homes, their sanctuaries hidden away even from their nearest neighbors, filled with works not ready to be shown to anyone until they receive their personal stamp of perfection. Perhaps I can relate to this allure of creative isolation because of my own artistic family, my upbringing, and my profession. However, I believe that deep down each of us wants the world to know about the amazing things we can create. That the process of art begins not when a pen touches paper or a brush touches canvas, but when the heart, mind, and soul yearn to reach out to other hearts, minds, and souls. It is my hope that this series of photos expresses that and removes the veil just ever so slightly, so that our neighbors, distant and close, can not only see the amazing gifts within ourselves, but can also inspire such amazing gifts within others.
Photo: Shanua Newton-Rodriguez
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ARTIST DENNESA USHER I believe that if you really stay focused on the things that you love, it’s only in due time that a bigger dream is going to come into play, a bigger vision that you didn’t even realize existed within you. We were all born at the right time, with the right amount of gifts and the right amount of time and talents to fulfill a purpose no one else could fulfill, and I just represent those possibilities and ideas, and a well-designed life that I hope people can be inspired by.
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PHOTOGRAPHER OSJUA AZARRA NEWTON
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PHOTOGRAPHER ROBERT FASS Robert Fass, an award-winning performer, director, writer, photographer, and musician, has lived in New York City since 1984; he moved to the Bronx in 2011. His photography was first shown in the Bronx in 2001 in a solo exhibition at the Gilbert Pavilion of the Hebrew Home at Riverdale. In 2006 his internationally acclaimed documentary photo essay examining the changing institution of marriage in America, As Long As We Both Shall Live, received a major solo exhibition at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan and has been exhibited at the Creative Photographic Arts Center of Maine, the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung in Berlin, the DeutschAmerikanische Zentrum in Stuttgart, and numerous other cities, from Vienna to Beijing. His work has appeared in The New York Times, DoubleTake magazine, and The Christian Science Monitor. Fass studied black-and-white printing at the International Center of Photography with Nancy Sirkis, environmental portraiture with Shelby Lee Adams, and fine printing at the JCC in Manhattan with Adam Eidelberg. Fass has received numerous fellowships and artist residencies, including the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts; the Saltonstall Colony in Ithaca, NY; the Julia and David White Colony in Costa Rica; FundaciĂłn ValparaĂso in Spain; and Caldera in Sisters, Oregon.
Photo: Adi Talwar
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ARTIST REBECCA ALLAN Working from a studio that overlooks the Harlem and Hudson Rivers in the Spuyten Duyvil neighborhood of the Bronx, I am inspired by a deep appreciation for the beauty of the natural environment overlaid with an awareness of its fragility and endangerment. For many years my work has concentrated on rivers, tributaries, and watershed environments as primary sources of investigation. My paintings are rooted in the changing cycles of nature as well as a deep curiosity about science, and the forces underlying what we observe on the surface of things.
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PHOTOGRAPHER ROBERT FASS
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PHOTOGRAPHER MARISOL DÍAZ Marisol Díaz was born and raised in the Bronx. She received an AAS degree in advertising arts from Bronx Community College, and a BA in liberal arts with a specialty in photography from City College of the City University of New York. Her personal work has been exhibited in several galleries and alternative spaces in New York, including the George Eastman House and El Taller Boricua Gallery. Nominated by En Foco, she was commissioned by the George Eastman House in 2008 to photograph landscapes in Puerto Rico. Díaz is also the recipient of three BRIO Awards from the Bronx Council on the Arts, a Local Hero Award from the Bank of America, a Citation of Merit from Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión, and the New York State Senate Award for her contribution to the arts in her community. Awards in photojournalism include the 2012 New York Press Association’s Awards for Photographer of the Year, Best Use of Photos, Spot News Photo(s), Best Photojournalism and Picture Story, and the 2012 Local Media Association’s 1st Place Award for Best News Photo, among others. From 2012 to 2014 Díaz was the Photo Editor/Chief Photographer for The Riverdale Press. Currently, she is an Adjunct Professor at both City College of the City University of New York and Mercy College, where she teaches photojournalism. Díaz also freelances for Newsday and runs her company Marisol Díaz Photography.
Photo: Adi Talwar
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ARTIST TAMMY NGUYEN The Bronx is outside the mainstream of how a foreigner might define “New York City.” It is unfortunate that this is the case because the work being made here has urgency and relevance to contemporary concerns. Art, and who sees it, is partly a game of strength in numbers—one that is comprised of and supported by community. This mass of people creates a cultural “sound byte” that can echo throughout media streams which can then reach viewers of other locales. I would like to see the individual artistic practices in the Bronx become more visible, and coming together as a Bronx art community is absolutely integral to this endeavor. The beauty of individual stories relies on a community’s power to speak as a larger voice. 84
PHOTOGRAPHER MARISOL DÍAZ
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PHOTOGRAPHER BRIAN NOBILI Brian Nobili (aka Brian Dwels) is an American visual artist who has traveled the world, starting with an eight-year career spent entirely overseas in the U.S. Navy. While in Sasebo, Japan, he played guitar in a punk rock band named Yakamoshi (which means “shut up” in Japanese); it was during this time that he became a Time-Capsule Creator. He wanted to record the band’s shows and practices in Nagasaki prefecture. Nobili also used his Hi-8mm video camera to capture unique images of daily life during the 1990s, including his travels with the Navy and the painting of large-scale graffiti murals for Japanese stores, bars, clubs, etc. What began as just a cool way to stay in touch with his graffiti crew (Da Fame League) stateside became the start of a career in production. In 2002, while working as a chemist in Rota, Spain, Nobili got his big break by producing a video for NASA at Moran Air Force Base. After he left the Navy, he worked as a producer for Comcast Key West and then, after moving back up north, for Heavy.com. Later, he became Vice President of Production for Devour.tv. After running production for Tuff City Styles, Nobili was recruited to become Director of Enlightenment for the online publishing giant SocialFlow, while the company was still a start-up. In 2014 he cofounded NYCStreetPhotography.com with legendary street photographer Ricky Powell. When he isn’t working on his own projects, Nobili sells prints through FromTheBronx.com, and he continues to freelance for clients, including the newly opened Bronx Beer Hall, Mass Appeal, WESC, Space Ibiza NY, and SocialSign.in.
Photo: Felicia Enriques
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ARTIST ROYAL KINGBEE Ironically, the very same stuff I was creating on empty pages when I was (if I remember correctly) seven years old—kids’ stuff—is what I’m creating now, four decades later. Still doing it, on a different level of course. I know you’ve seen it... Bzz.
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PHOTOGRAPHER BRIAN NOBILI
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PHOTOGRAPHER EDWIN J. TORRES Edwin J. Torres is a photojournalist and documentary photographer born and raised in the South Bronx. He attended Colby College under the Posse program, where he received a full-tuition leadership scholarship. He majored in American Studies and dedicated his focus to photography and documentary video. After graduation, Torres attended a workshop with Maggie Steber and Erica McDonald, and shortly thereafter he received the Jack and Dorothy Fields Scholarship to attend the Missouri Photo-Workshop 65. He further developed his techniques for photojournalism and documentary storytelling there. In 2014, Torres was one of the few visual artists chosen to attend The New York Times Lens Portfolio Review and LOOKbetween in Virginia. His work has been published in The New York Times, the Leica Blog, Curbed.com, Welcome2theBronx.com, Fototazo, and several other publications. His personal work is concerned with telling his family’s story about the Puerto Rican diaspora, and stories about inner city communities. He enjoys the use of the camera as a tool to communicate, meet others, and bring to light issues that have poor representation. Torres currently volunteers at the Bronx Documentary Center and works as a freelancer for The New York Times.
Photo: Coua Vang
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ARTIST DENNIS REDMOON DARKEEM The Bronx is home to me. I was raised in the South Bronx and I’m more than proud to say I’m a South Bronx artist from the 10459 zip code. If I don’t have pride in my Bronx community, then who will? It’s important to me to educate young people in my community; if they don’t like what they see, it’s their mission to make a change, not just for themselves but for the next generation.
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PHOTOGRAPHER EDWIN J. TORRES
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PHOTOGRAPHER CINNAMON WILLIS Cinnamon Willis was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, and has been interested in art since the age of six. Willis’s mother had taken photographs of her throughout her childhood and was a big influence in Willis picking up photography herself. By the time she went to college, she was able to use her mother’s Pentax K1000 for her photography courses. Willis graduated from the New York College of Technology with an associate’s degree in art and advertising and a bachelor’s degree in communication design. After graduation, she worked for several financial publications as a graphic designer, art director, and production designer. In her free time she began painting, sculpting, and creating dolls. After she realized how crucial it was to photograph her artwork, she began to work on her photography again. Willis now lives and works in the Bronx and has participated in group shows all over New York City and in Canada.
Photo: Ignacio Soltero
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ARTIST TAMMY WOFSEY I moved to the South Bronx to be in a place where I could live and work as an artist. In this process I found a home. I am a printmaker, and moving my presses into my new studio was one of my biggest challenges. They simply would not fit through the door. The only solution was to cut a chunk of the wall out and create a larger opening. This was the beginning of new doors being opened and opportunities created for me in the Bronx. I am part of a movement that is working toward greater exposure for Bronx artists and for our right to clean air and a healthful environment. I am happy to live and work in the Bronx and I hope to make a contribution toward creating a better future for my community.
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PHOTOGRAPHER CINNAMON WILLIS
181
Directory A: BxADP Photographers and Visual Artists
243
MANUEL ACEVEDO
REBECCA ALLAN
page 168
culturehall.com/manuel_acevedo 698acevedo@gmail.com 973.207.0954
page 68
Bug Out, 2014
Bronx River Reverie, 2014
rebeccaallan.com rebeccaallanstudio@gmail.com Acrylic and peel collage on canvas, 54”x 56”
Black and white tape, spray paint, 10’x 16’
JOHN AHEARN
ED ALVAREZ
page 46
page 129
johnahearn.com
Edalvarez.nyc
Poet, 2008
Salsa in the Rain
Painted plaster portrait, 30”x 30”x 6”
Photograph
BILL BEHNKEN page 216
oldprintshop.com billbna@hotmail.com
LIZZY ALEJANDRO page 207
lizzyalejandro.wix.com/ishootbx lizzy.alejandro@gmail.com
Harlem River Nocturne: Light & Steel, 2008 Aquatint, 18”x 24”
Hidden, 2013
Scanned negative printed on canvas, 16”x 20”
HARRIET BELAG
JEANINE ALFIERI
page 32
page 52
718.601.0893
jeaninealfieri.com jeaninealfieri@aol.com 646.621.6092
I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can
High-fired stoneware chair, polychromed in oils, 56”x 20”x 18”
Spirit Recycles, 2011 Cast, steel, and linen, 28”x 23”x 9”
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Acevedo, Manuel 168 Ahearn, John 46 Alejandro, Lizzy 207 Alfieri, Jeanine 52 Allan, Rebecca 68 Alvarez, Ed 129 Behnken, William 216 Belag, Harriet 32 Bishop, Evan T. 176 Bouza, Elena 134 Brill, Reina Mia 182 Brody, Michele 138 Burcaw, Matthew 160 Calderon, Melissa 56 Camacho, Ernesto 64 Carrasco, Chen 148 CES 90 Chadwick-Juner, Marguerite 70 Click, Lauren 155 Colby, Mary 104 Colón Torres, Yarisa 82 Corrigan, Carmen 80 CRASH 48 Cruz, Augustine 200 Cunningham, Linda 212 Darkeem, Dennis Redmoon 164 DAZE 170 De la Cruz, Sharon 208 Delgado, David 229 DelValle, Daniel 230 DeVille, Abigail 130 Díaz, Marisol 79 Elian, Melissa Bunni 111 Estevez, Maria 225 Fass, Robert 67 Figueroa, Xavier 40 Flores, Ricky 15
Florescu, Viorel Fougeron, Martine Franco, Ángel Frick, Michelle Gallegos, Sean Paul Garvey, Ryan Gibbons, Bill Gonzalez, David Gonzalez, Josie Guarionex, Josué Hashimoto, Kuniyasu Hastanan, Skowmon Hauben, Daniel Heijnen, Chantal Hernandez, Lucia Howard, Sabin Humanfeld, Anne James, Laura Johnson, Heidi Kahane, Lisa Katz, Hal Korman, Barbara Lady K Fever Larko, Valeri Lopez, Ray March, Christian Marshall, Ruth Mendoza, Alexis Merritt, Ira Moss, Jay Nadelstern, Paula Nazario, Lazarus Newton, Osjua Azarra Nguyen, Tammy Nobili, Brian Nolen, Matt Olshan, Aaron 269
101 23 59 108 102 174 136 45 188 54 146 28 74 63 142 106 122 112 152 51 202 24 166 16 226 124 76 36 187 158 196 114 35 84 89 26 192
Olshan, Bernard Peralta, Danny Petit, Benjamin Reyes, Adam Riso, Louis Rivera, José Robinson, Nina Rodriguez, Stephanie Ros-Suárez, Moses Royal KingBee Ruiz, Miguélàngel Seyffert, Robert Shaffer, Karah Soltero, Ignacio SpazeCraft One Starcevic, Helena Stephenberg, Luis Strother, Tyrone Talwar, Adi Tats Cru Tekyi-Berto, Berthland Terner, Ron T-Kid170 Tomaiolo, Jennifer Torres, Edwin J. Trenier, Andre Usher, Dennesa Vigliani, Sylvia Weisberger, Lenny Wiggan, Sandra Wilcox, Randal Willis, Cinnamon Willis, Cinnamon Wofsey, Tammy Wood, Natalie Yearwood, David YES2
194 151 141 173 215 226 133 210 60 94 232 120 235 219 92 30 222 156 73 18 199 117 96 118 163 42 38 190 126 86 236 179 220 180 184 144 98