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10TH ANNIVERSARY SPRING 2018 COMMUNITY
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ISSUE 15: COMMUNITY
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LETTER FROM THE EDITORS When considering the theme Community, our first thoughts were of kinship. Who we feel close to and how do those bonds form?
For this issue, we also wanted to look at our own community. Ten years ago, ISO published its first magazine. Those who
What aspects of ourselves do we use as glue to relate to others? How do artists and writers respond to these questions?
worked on publication as staff members, who made it what it is today, are honored in this issue. This upcoming fall, we are also taking part in Cit.i.zen.ship: Reflections on Rights, an exhibition that provides the public an opportunity for interaction, reflection, and discussion on our current political climate and the fifty years since the passage of the Civil Rights Act. The show, hosted by the NYU Tisch Department of Photography and Imaging, includes work by artists and photographers of all ages responds to and engages with human rights, equality, and social justice, and communities who fight for these rights. As ISO Magazine goes on, we hope to continue to explore complex themes in image culture as well as engage further with our own community of readers, artists, and contemporary thinkers.
We came to understand that to be part of a community requires more than just proximity. We group ourselves according to our interests, upbringings, and ideologies. Sometimes, we are born into these groups. Other times, we seek them out, or they find us. In Issue 15, we present work that confirms and expands the definition of community. There is a collective creating a new music scene, a group of women redefining themselves, and a disappearing subculture. We see ways people can connect over a shared experience despite not knowing one another.
– Vida Lercari & Alex Trippe
ISO Magazine is a student-run publication based at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Since 2008, our rotating staff has worked to explore contemporary themes in visual imagery. We place the work of emerging photographers in conversation with that of established artists, as well as write critically and creatively on photography.
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Front Cover: Joey Solomon Inside Cover: Yashna Kaul
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AVE 13-07 37TH RIANA GIDEON
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HYDRO PUNK ROY BAIZAN
ISO ALUMNI GALLERY
ULS FIELD OF SO N AKSHAY BHOA
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OME PARIS SYNDRST FRANÇOIS PRO RAKUEN HI SHOHEI MIYAC
COMMUNITY THE GALLERY
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CREDITS ISO STAFF
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13-07 37th Ave Riana Gideon Between 1980 and 2014, the number of incarcerated women in the U.S. has increased by more than 700 percent - outpacing men by 50 percent. In weaving anecdotes, research, and
In New York State, female ex-offenders who receive re-entry support have an average recidivism rate of 3.5 percent, compared to the statewide average of 39.9. While programs like Hour Children are
photographs together, this project documents New York State female ex-offenders who are successfully transitioning into society with the support of Hour Children’s Working Women Re-entry Program. 13-07 37th Ave highlights the resilient women who are working towards employment and their children, closely supervised by mentors to cease intergenerational incarceration. Hour Children provides formerly incarcerated individuals with access to computers, employment workshops, and comprehensive support, including subsidized housing, medical assistance, and child care.
working to combat intergenerational incarceration, the fight must continue for inmates, ex-offenders, and their families.
Through conversations, home visits, and trips to the nursery at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, I quickly became aware of the lack of visibility that this population experiences. I began using my lens as a form of advocacy and as a voice for women who are experiencing hardship in light of newfound freedom. The following photographs are collaborative portraits that were posed by the subjects themselves. This purposeful choice results in agency over the portrayal; something that is not often granted to this population.
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I sent a package to the women at the Hour Children re-entry program in December of 2017. Inside were photographs that I had taken a few weeks prior and 30 notecards with various questions and room for responses. In a letter that accompanied the notecards and photos, I encouraged the women to answer the questions anonymously and mail them back to me. I asked them about their support systems, the importance of resources, and their future plans. The anonymity of their answers revealed the through line of female incarceration. The women that I had gotten to know over the course of my project had shared their individual triumphs and hardships with me. I always took note of the differences in each story as I began to understand the massive reach of incarceration. However, the notecards showed me the similarities that exist amongst formerly incarcerated women: a desire to reconnect with family, to pursue education, and to successfully re-enter their community. -Riana Gideon
Amy is currently living in a homeless shelter for Jamaican women. She volunteers at Hour Children in hopes of becoming a full-time employee. Previously, she counseled at-risk incarcerated youth.
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Brooke, 9.
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Christina travels to Hour Children twice a week for workshops and access to computers. She lives in upstate New York with her children. “My son just got his first job, he’s working at Burger King. I’m proud of him.” Christina hopes to continue her education in pursuit of a marine biology degree.
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Nyaliah, 15, her sister Brooke, 9 (previous), have an incarcerated mother. Through Hour Children they have a mentor, attend weekend events, and have the opportunity to visit their mother in prison. In partnership with Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, Hour Children arranges free transportation to and from the site, provides lunch, and coordinates mother-child visits.
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HYDROPUNK
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Roy Baizan 21-year-old New York based photographer Roy Baizan captures the vivacity and spirit of the rock, punk, trap, and hiphop shows staged by Bronx music collective Hydro Punk.
Alex Romero, guitarist for Statik Vision, performs at Issa Yarty Inna X, an underground art exhibit hosted at an apartment in the North Bronx in 2017. 15
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Above: Alex Romero, guitarist for Statik Vision, performing a solo at his band’s album release party at the Point CDC, a community center in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx. 2017.
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Above: Members of the Wedge, a blues rock band from New Jersey, setting up to perform at a house show in the North Bronx. 2017. Lower Right: Jehiel Winters of the rhythm punk band Winter Wolf performs at the Carl Sage Inn, an underground music venue in the Hunts Point section of the South Bronx. 2017.
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ISO MAGAZINE ALUMNI The alumni gallery was created to celebrate ISO’s tenth anniversary. Since its inception in 2008, the magazine has been passed down to different students with different voices and visions for the publication. The photographs in this gallery are current works by former staff members who shaped ISO into what it is today.
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Michael George Founder, Editor-in-Chief, 2008-2012
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Julia Wang
Photo Editor, 2014 Associate Designer, 2015 Executive Editor, 2016
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Jonah Rosenberg Photo Editor, 2012-2014 Executive Editor, 2014-2015
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Mark Davis Photo Editor, 2011-2015
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Sasha Arutyunova Photo Editor, 2008-2011
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Field of Souls Akshay Bhoan
Germany - Denmark Border. The border is an important crossing point for people walking into Denmark from Southern Europe.
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Miron, Iraq Youngest of three children, escaped with family due to Shia - Sunni conflict in Iraq.
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Field of Souls is the first chapter in a photographic anthology focused on migration and the great forces sculpting the refugee movements. Photographed in Denmark, the images are built around personal narratives of asylum seekers, discussion of their journey and the circumstances that lead to such a dislocation. While interviewing and photographing the subjects, I discovered gaps in the conversation, conflicting information and translation issues. Sometimes the subject would abruptly end their narration, stating “its best to forget some things because they are too painful.” The images suspended in a disorienting space, between dreaming and wakefulness, attempt to speak about the limbo that refugees exist in, without any assurances of acceptance. By accepting the narratives as surreal, part truth and part fiction, I hope to engage with emotional fragility and the abandonment inherent in their stories. The work seeks to initiate discussions and reshape the fabricated understanding of migration, formed by immigration policies that only recognize specific dimensions of conflicts. Presented as handmade collages in combination with landscapes, the images explore the extreme uncertainty, emotional trauma and underlying violence that surrounds all individuals who seek asylum in foreign lands. Torn in shapes of borders, the form refers to the power structures in the influential regions important to the specific subject’s story. The selection and combination of different images is directly influenced by the narrative of journey. The collages also hold impressions of my fingerprints - creating an act of participation in the shared history of migrants. –Akshay Bhoan
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Name Withheld, Syria Asylum Status: Accepted, Temporary Asylum.
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Zahra, Afghanistan Fled during the night with sister, running through desert to avoid Taliban. Adopted by foster family in Denmark. Asylum Status: Accepted, Temporary Residency. Case up for reassessment when she turns 18.
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Sweden - Denmark Border. Many of those coming into Europe hope to reach Sweden due to its softer immigration policies and high regard for human rights. But once they enter into Europe, their cases are mediated over the country that fingerprints them. This is in accordance with the Dublin Regulation signed by all EU countries as well as Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, and Lichtenstein.
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Kazhwan, Iran Mother of two, left home without family, awaiting family reunification. Asylum Status: Accepted, Temporary Residency
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Name Withheld, Iraq Escaped with teenage son fearing political persecution.
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SjĂŚlsmark Udrejsecenter or Deportation Center, SjĂŚlsmark. The prison facility has been converted to house all families that are awaiting deportation. The facility is run by Kriminal Forsorgen (Danish Prison & Probation Service) that oversees day to day operations and motivational measures such as removal of kitchens from residence areas, automated lighting and administration of basic medication.
PARIS SYNDROME Franรงois Prost
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Far from the city center of Hangzhou, China there is a one-third scale model of the Eiffel Tower. Nearby, there is a miniature Champs Elysees, fountains copied from the Luxembourg Gardens, and a Palace of Versailles only fifteen years old. Tianducheng is a neighborhood attempting to evoke the romantic timeless feel of Paris. Built to attract those with the desire to experience Paris, tourists and residents step out of rural China and into metropolitan Europe. In his series Paris Syndrome, Franรงois Prost documents the dichotomy of the two places, examining their stark contrasts and similarities.
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Paris
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Tianducheng
Paris
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Paris
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RAKUEN Shohei Miyachi Rakuen is an abstracted view of casual encounters between gay men at porn theaters in Tokyo. These theaters have been the secret paradise, Rakuen, where men have explored their transgressive desires for many years. Yet only a few of these places still exist in Tokyo, the mega city where sexual minorities are oppressed on a daily basis. Most of the patrons are middle-aged and elderly men who don’t feel comfortable using popular online sites or dating apps. They stick to this disappearing culture whereby men search for sex partners live in actual places.
The men frequenting the theaters for sex keep their desires hidden publicly, but once in the theater, they participate in an explosion of sex acts. In the darkness, dimly lit by the movie screen, their movements are blurred and anonymous, their deep moans merging into the dark, liminal space. Although the wilder, more explicit acts dominate the scene, there are also quite a few who behave more romantically, holding hands and embracing in a momentary feeling of mutual acceptance, a reprieve from the discrimination they face in everyday life.
I move through the space with a camera concealed in my shirt and observe subtly, without calling attention to myself or disturbing the activity. I feel plunged into the midst of a primal, intimate, and poignant expression of lust and desire. I am aware of my own participation as a voyeur, secretly absorbing, recording, and documenting a compelling subculture before it disappears. Rakuen is fast approaching the end stage of its existence. –Shohei Miyachi
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Cit.i.zen.ship: Reflections on Rights More than fifty years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, we continue to struggle for human rights and equality. In the 1960s, American youth were marching, walking out of schools, and speaking at established American institutions protesting white supremacy, calling for voting rights, and advocating for fair treatment in schools for women and people of color. In 2018, young people are still in the streets, fighting for LGBTQ rights, immigration reform,voting rights, disability reform, health care, freedom of speech. They are fighting gentrification of their communities. They are calling for change. Cit.i.zen.ship: Reflections on Rights is an interpretative exhibition that provides the public with an opportunity for interaction, reflection, and discussion on our current political climate. The show includes work by high school and college students as well as working artists and photographers that respond to and engage with human rights, equality, and social justice. Hosted at the NYU Tisch Department of Photography and Imaging, the show will also feature key events for the New York City area, notably voter registration. On a college campus, making sure young people are able to vote and use their votes for change is more important than ever. This will be hosted in collaboration with For Freedoms and their 50 States Initiative, an artist-run political super-PAC. The exhibition is curated by Lorie Novak and Deb Willis in collaboration with For Freedoms and the NYU Tisch Department of Photography and Imaging and will take place in the fall of 2018.
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THE GALLERY The Gallery is a curation of work submitted by young photographers and writers from across the globe in response to the theme COMMUNITY:
SOCIETY DIASPORA ANCESTRY NATION ISOLATION CENTER STOMPING GROUND ROOTS COMRADERY KINSHIP FAMILY OUTSKIRTS CHAIN CONGREGATION GENTRIFICATION UNION CREW
Colby Tarsitano
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Good Day to Texas In the Texas heat she sits unnerved shucking the pages of her book as teeth on the artichoke this is her as she arrives at the station: her mind in her grandmother’s kitchen, walls the color of egg: one day you’ll have a baby in your belly this is her when she is told to wait.
This is her when she is told to wait a young boy plays guns in the street– she watches, unnerved over tea, a dark-skinned man asks to feel her stomach [she swallows a bite of artichoke] [he licks his plate of eggs] that night laughter peels the wall of the station.
In Texas, she peered into a pool of water that had collected atop a bucket. in the yellowish murk tiny mosquito larvae twisted in their spasmodic dance. she stared for a long while.
Then she took off running past cow pastures and broken dog houses and men chewing cud next to beaten down ice cream trucks.
That summer she spent with her grandmother, whose name is Goya, like the beans they spent the days sucking down platano con leche and watched the women sing in church. Grandma’s neck would shake, her milky eyes glazed.
“hear the checharas” she’d say as the drone in the trees sang of Texas heat. And sometimes, when they pass the post office someone would say– nah, who’s that little white girl with you, Goya?
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Diana Carolina Guerra Silva
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Joey Solomon
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Entanglement A community is a tough thing to pin down, It is no longer defined by geographical bounds, Those closest to us may be thousands of miles away, Connected by message boards, cell towers, and fiber optic cables, A network grows out of shared passion, forms a society Bonded not by blood or proximity, but by affinity. However, our virtual contacts are rarely enough to sustain us for long when life falls apart.
We are defined not by the thoughts in our heads, but by the action we take in poignant moments, And by our demeanors as we brave the tedium of the river of time. As we are tumbled about as the flotsam and jetsam of life, we find people to hold.
A hand extends across a sea of change and is caught. Our people are still our people, They are still a part of us, Just a text, call, postcard, smoke signal, daydream away. No matter who we meet, where we intersect, how we connect, Our people will be there to give texture to our lives. –Nina Dietz
Left: Ying Ang Next: Daniel Cole ParĂŠs 61
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EDITORS: Vida Lercari Alex Trippe DESIGN: Jay Arora Taylor Bissey Raafae Ghory Morgan Sloan Colby Tarsitano EDITORIAL: Nina Dietz Marissa Moxley PHOTO EDITORS: Alyssa Dickson Chloe Dugourd Kavya Krishna Katerina Voetgle FACULTY ADVISOR: Editha Mesina SPECIAL THANKS: Edgar Costello Tom Drysdale Allyson Green, Dean Niki Kekos Patricia McKelvin Lorie Novak Caroline Wolfe Pappochia Todd Pettiford Caleb Savage Deborah Willis, Ph.D., Chair DPI
GALLERY CONTRIBUTORS: (in order of appearance) Colby Tarsitano, New York, NY, colbytarsitano.com Diana Carolina Guerra Silva, Lima, Peru, dianaguerra.com Joey Solomon, New York, NY, joeysolomon.net Ying Ang, Melbourne, AUS, yingangphoto.com Daniel Cole Parés, New York, NY, danielcolepares.com FEATURED ARTISTS: (in order of appearance) Riana Gideon, rianagideon.com Roy Baizan, @roybaizan Michael George, michaelgeorgephoto.com Julia Wang, julia-wang.com Jonah Rosenberg, jonahrosenbergphoto.com Mark Davis, marktimothydavis.com Sasha Arutonoyva, sashaarutyunova.com Akshay Bhoan, bhoan.com François Prost, francoisprost.com Shohei Miyachi, shoheimiyachi.com FEATURED WRITERS: (in order of appearance) Sara Munjack Nina Dietz GENEROUS SUPPORT FROM: Dean's Profunds The Department of Photography and Imaging The Marshall Mundheim Fund Tisch Undergraduate Student Council Tisch Office of Student Affairs Recipient of 2017 PRESIDENT’S SERVICE AWARD Printed at GRAFIKA Edition of 400 Back Cover: Joey Solomon, joeysolomon.net Inside Back Cover: Yashna Kaul, the-image-world.com
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