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Volume 12 No. 3 – U.S. $7.00
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photographic journal
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MYRA GREENE HEE JIN KANG MARTÍN WEBER COMMENTARY BY ARIEL SHANBERG INTERCAMBIO: VALDIR CRUZ
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NUEVA LUZ
Editorial
photographic journal volume 12:3
Ta b l e o f C o n t e n t s Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .page 1 Myra Greene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .page 2–11 Hee Jin Kang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .page 12–21 Martín Weber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .page 22–31 Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .page 32 Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .page 33–36 Intercambio: Valdir Cruz . . . . . . . . .page 37–39 Critical Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .page 40-43 Advertising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .page 43-44 NUEVA LUZ STAFF
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Publisher & Editor Miriam Romais Production Designer Olga Omelchenko Advertising Marisol Díaz Translator Patricia Fernández
Sidney Baumgarten, Secretary Frank Gimpaya, Chair Mary Anne Holley Luis Rodriguez,Treasurer Miriam Romais
EN FOCO STAFF Executive Director Miriam Romais Program Director Marisol Díaz Administrative Coordinator Janine Ryan Collection & Prints Registrar Veronica O'Hearn Graphic Design Nita Le Co-Founder and Director Emeritus Charles Biasiny-Rivera Design Frank Gimpaya
BOARD OF ADVISORS Nadema Agard Terry Boddie Mark Brown Elizabeth Ferrer Ricky Flores Jeff Hoone Nitza Luna Marysol Nieves Bonnie Portelance Sophie Rivera Orville Robertson Mel Rosenthal Ariel Shanberg Beuford Smith PRINTING Eastwood Litho, Inc. 315/437-2626 DISTRIBUTORS Ubiquity Distributors, Inc. 718/789-3137 Armadillo & Co. 800/499-7674
C o p y r i g h t © 2008 by En Foco, Inc. (ISSN 0887-5855) All Rights Reserved • 718/931-9311 1738 Hone Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461 www.enfoco.org
Nueva Luz is the country’s premier photography magazine publishing works by American photographers of African, Asian, Latino, Native American and Pacific Islander heritage. Nueva Luz is made possible through subscriptions, our Print Collectors Program, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. En Foco is also funded in part by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts, Bronx Council on the Arts, the Carnegie Corporation of NY, National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, Daniele Agostino Derossi Foundation, WNYC.org, Lowepro, Bogen, Archival Methods, Fuji Film and the many En Foco members and friends.
Nueva Luz will make accommodations under ADA guidelines for those needing large print. Cover: Myra Greene, Untitled, Character Recognition series, 2006. Ambrotype on black glass, 4x3”
Photo by: George Malave
Here in New York City, there is a group of culturally diverse arts groups petitioning the City government for cultural equity in the way policies and guidelines are developed for distributing arts funding. Word is, 34 City institutions receive 96% of the city’s funds while 800 others compete for the rest. Now that’s a call for reflection. How does a small organization compete with those having professional grant writers on staff, or even those with a staff? How can you nurture and keep emerging generations of leaders, when you can’t offer a decent salary or benefits? As our founding director has said on many occasions, it takes a very special person to work here. Not only do you have to believe in what you do with all your heart, you have to be willing to sacrifice… which begs the question: how can we change that? It’s surprising how many organizations are suffering from antiquated (and some say, elitist) funding systems – at least some members of the City Council are trying to change that. In the meantime, many orgs face losing their spaces (can’t say this enough: thank you BCA), cutting back on programs or not being able to hire or retain staff on low wages. So please contact your local politician and urge them to support additional funding for the arts. If they’re already doing that, then thank them for their efforts. It doesn’t matter where you live: do not wait until your favorite organization is facing closed doors. This is a national issue, and we all have the ability to effect change.
A
quí, en la Ciudad de Nueva York, hay un grupo culturalmente diverso de organizaciones artísticas que está elevando una petición al ayuntamiento en la que se solicita una mayor equidad cultural en el desarrollo de políticas y parámetros de distribución de fondos para actividades artísticas. Dicen que hay 34 instituciones en la ciudad que reciben el 96% de los fondos destinados a las Artes mientras que 800 más compiten por el resto. Eso bien invita a la reflexión. ¿Cómo puede competir una pequeña organización con otras que tienen personal experto en la solicitud de becas o que tienen, simplemente, personal? ¿Cómo se pueden cultivar y retener generaciones emergentes de líderes cuando no se les puede ofrecer beneficios ni un salario decente? Como ha dicho nuestro director fundador en muchas ocasiones, hay que ser una persona muy especial para trabajar aquí. No sólo tienes que creer en lo que haces con toda tu alma, sino que también tienes que estar dispuesto/a a sacrificarte… lo cual nos lleva a la gran pregunta: ¿cómo podemos cambiar esta situación? Resulta sorprendente cuántas organizaciones sufren de sistemas de financiación anticuados (y algunos dirían elitistas). Por lo menos, algunos concejales están intentando hacer cambios. Mientras tanto, muchas organizaciones corren el riesgo de perder sus locales (es imposible repetir esto demasiado: gracias, BCA), verse obligados a recortar sus programas o no poder contratar o retener a su personal debido a bajos salarios. Así que, por favor, póngase en contacto con su representante político local y pídale que apoye iniciativas que incrementen la financiación para las Artes. Si ya lo están haciendo, entonces denles las gracias por sus esfuerzos. No importa dónde viva usted: no espere hasta que su organización favorita se vea obligada a cerrar sus puertas. Este es un asunto nacional, y todos tenemos la capacidad de efectuar cambios.
Miriam Romais, Publisher and Editor Nueva Luz
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Myra Greene, Untitled, Character Recognition series, 2006. Ambrotype on black glass, 4x3”
Artist Statement “Confronted with an upswell of personal and public bigotry (the rhetoric surrounding Katrina), I was forced to ask myself, what do people see when they look at me? Am I nothing but black? Is that skin tone enough to describe my nature or expectation in life? Do my strong teeth make me a strong worker? Does my character resonate louder than my skin tone? Throughout my artistic practice, I have returned to the body to explore issues of difference, beauty, physical and emotional recollections as they play out on the surface of the skin. Using wet-plate collodion (a process linked to the times of ethnographic classification, popular from 1850-1880s), Character Recognition explores my ethnic features. When I applied this old process to my interest in the black body and self, the imagery described my body in a way never imagined. Tainted with the visual history of American slavery, these images point directly to the features of race. Thick lips and nose, and darken skinned; these contemporary studies link the view to a complicated historical past. While the process of wet plate codes the body in this work, the body is able to speak back. Through small facial gestures, the body reacts and rejects to these modes and ways of classification. ” Myra Greene En Foco presents Nueva Luz artists Myra Greene – Sama Alshaibi March 1 - April 6, 2008 at Umbrella Arts Gallery 327 East 9th Street, New York, NY 10003 212.505.7196 www.umbrellaarts.com For artist talk and opening reception dates, visit www.enfoco.org
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Myra Greene
Untitled, Character Recognition series, 2006. Ambrotype on black glass, 3x4â&#x20AC;?
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Myra Greene Untitled, Character Recognition series, 2006. Ambrotype on black glass, 4x3â&#x20AC;?
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Myra Greene Untitled, Character Recognition series, 2006. Ambrotype on black glass, 4x3â&#x20AC;?
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Myra Greene Untitled, Character Recognition series, 2006. Ambrotype on black glass, 3x4â&#x20AC;?
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Myra Greene Untitled, Character Recognition series, 2006. Ambrotype on black glass, 4x3â&#x20AC;?
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Myra Greene Untitled, Character Recognition series, 2007. Ambrotype on black glass, 3x4â&#x20AC;?
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Myra Greene Untitled, Character Recognition series, 2007. Ambrotype on black glass, 4x3â&#x20AC;?
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Myra Greene Untitled, Character Recognition series, 2007. Ambrotype on black glass, 4x3â&#x20AC;?
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Myra Greene Untitled, Character Recognition series, 2007. Ambrotype on black glass, 3x4â&#x20AC;?
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Hee Jin Kang, Untitled, Sandy’s Deli series, 2003-2005. C-print, 20x24”
Artist Statement “For two years, I photographed at my parents’ corner store, Sandy’s Deli, located in a New York City borough. Through this photographic investigation of a place, I created a portrait of my parents without pointing the camera directly at them. Working with a 4x5 view camera, I saw layers of accumulation, and objects that, in their disarray, made rhythmic juxtapositions. This accrual of stuff can be peeled away to reveal something simple, poetic and intensely personal, even within a public space like a Korean deli. My pictures are amplified observations of things overlooked: a hanging mirror, a pair of sunsets on yellowed calendar pages, a family snapshot tucked into an unlikely space. My parents would tell me repeatedly that there was nothing to photograph at the store. Where they saw nothing, I saw everything. But to communicate my fascination to my parents is to struggle with a language barrier. My family immigrated to America when I was three years old, and my Korean is roughly as good as my parents’ English: conversational, but rudimentary, a child’s language. Somewhere in between these two elementary languages flow conversations that switch from one language to the next. But in the middle, in the core, we can never fully communicate because, simply, we are missing the words. This flux, or disconnect, between languages, identities, cultures, and generations, is a recurrent issue within many families. How many ways, and in how many different languages, can one say I love you? I wonder then, how do we capture or visualize intimacy and love in a photograph? Perhaps this photographic project is a way for me to bridge this gap, to replace those missing words through pictures.” Hee Jin Kang
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Hee Jin Kang
Untitled, Sandy’s Deli series, 2003-2005. C-print, 20x24”
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Hee Jin Kang Untitled, Sandy’s Deli series, 2003-2005. C-print, 24x20”
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Hee Jin Kang Untitled, Sandy’s Deli series, 2003-2005. C-print, 24x20”
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Hee Jin Kang Untitled, Sandy’s Deli series, 2003-2005. C-print, 24x20”
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Hee Jin Kang Untitled, Sandy’s Deli series, 2003-2005. C-print, 20x24”
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Hee Jin Kang Untitled, Sandy’s Deli series, 2003-2005. C-print, 24x20”
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Hee Jin Kang Untitled, Sandy’s Deli series, 2003-2005. C-print, 24x20”
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Hee Jin Kang Untitled, Sandy’s Deli series, 2003-2005. C-print, 24x20”
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Hee Jin Kang Untitled, Sandy’s Deli series, 2003-2005. C-print, 24x20”
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Martín Weber, Regresar a europa (Return to Europe). Granada, Nicaragua. A Map of Latin American Dreams series, 1992-2007. Toned gelatin silver print, 24x20”
Artist Statement “My aim is to document the desires and hopes of the individuals that make up Latin America, where each country’s history has confronted the lives of the individuals that inhabit these territories – where ideologies and economic policies have positioned them as characters in physical and cultural battlefields. At a time when most media is transformed into entertainment and human desires are recycled for sale, I believe it is possible to empower the unempowered – to present individuals who speak and think in their own words, therefore resisting that vision of fatalism so often imposed upon Latin Americans. In A Map of Latin American Dreams, I invite people to write on a chalkboard their desires and aspirations, in this way including their own perspective through their dreams. By participating in their own portrayal, they reveal themselves in their own language, therefore retaining power over how they are represented. I look to amplify the voices of the underrepresented, to give them dimension through personal stories, and reflect on how the history of the past decades of each country has affected the history of its individuals and families in the context of their daily life and expectations. Intimate hopes that otherwise remain veiled, reveal a history that otherwise may not be written. I hope to create a bridge of understanding, to bring viewers to identify, understand, and to inspire them to work for social justice. Dreams are not commodities, countries and continents are not means of trade, and the histories of our communities need to be represented. Our destiny may only be changed if we allow ourselves to imagine a destiny different from that which we were given.” Martín Weber
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Martín Weber
Que la necesidad no pertube nuestros sueños (That Our Needs do Not Disturb Our Dreams). La Habana, Cuba. A Map of Latin American Dreams series, 1992-2007. Toned gelatin silver print, 20x24”
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Martín Weber Tener la memoria de como mi Viejo desaparecido vivia sus sueños (To Have the Memory of How my Disappeared Dad Lived his Dreams). La Plata, Argentina. A Map of Latin American Dreams series, 1992-2007. Toned gelatin silver print, 24x20”
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MartĂn Weber Ayudar a mis hijos que estan en los Estados Unidos a pagar su deuda al coyote (To Help my Children who are in the United States pay their Debt to the Coyote). Altos del Pinar, Xela, Guatemala. A Map of Latin American Dreams series, 1992-2007. Toned gelatin silver print, 20x24â&#x20AC;?
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MartĂn Weber Pistola (Pistol). Oventic, Chiapas, Mexico. A Map of Latin American Dreams series, 1992-2007. Toned gelatin silver print, 20x24â&#x20AC;?
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MartĂn Weber Tener amigos (To Have Friends). Matagalpa, Nicaragua. A Map of Latin American Dreams series, 1992-2007. Toned gelatin silver print, 20x24â&#x20AC;?
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MartĂn Weber Mi sueno es morirme (My Dream is to Die). Colombia. A Map of Latin American Dreams series, 1992-2007. Toned gelatin silver print, 24x20â&#x20AC;?
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MartĂn Weber Quiero casar me con un yuma (I Want to Marry an American). La Habana, Cuba. A Map of Latin American Dreams series, 1992-2007. Toned gelatin silver print, 24x20â&#x20AC;?
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Martín Weber Eu, Pajé, quero que minha filha estude para defender seus direitos (I, Pajé, Want my Daughter to Study to Defend her Rights). Comunidade Karapoto, Alagoas, Brazil. A Map of Latin American Dreams series, 1992-2007. Toned gelatin silver print, 24x20”
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MartĂn Weber Una vida larga que no sea triste (A Long Life with no Sadness). Ollantaytambo, Peru. A Map of Latin American Dreams series, 1992-2007. Toned gelatin silver print, 20x24â&#x20AC;?
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Contributors
© Myra Greene
Myra Greene earned her BFA in photography from Washington University in 1997 and an MFA in studio art from the University of New Mexico in 2002. Her exhibitions include En Foco at Umbrella Arts Gallery in New York City; the Harold Lemmerman Gallery in Jersey City, NJ; Maryland Art Place in Baltimore, MD; John Sommers Gallery in Albuquerque, NM; the Yuma Art Center Museum in Yuma, AZ; Rochester Contemporary and Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, NY, and others. Greene is the recipient of an Honorable Mention award for En Foco’s New Works Photography Awards in 2007-08 and has been an Artist in Residence at Light Work in Syracuse and the Center for Photography at Woodstock, NY. Greene is an Assistant Professor in the Photography Department at the Columbia College Chicago. www.myragreene.com
MYRA GREENE
© Shin Ki Kang
Born in Seoul, Korea, Hee Jin Kang received a B.A. degree from Yale University in 1996, and an M.A. degree in photography from the Royal College of Art in London in 2002. Her work has been exhibited at Corridor Gallery in Brooklyn, NY; Texas Woman’s University Fine Arts Gallery in Denton, TX; Sotheby’s in New York, NY; and internationally at the Shine Gallery and Hayward Gallery in London, the Musée de l’Elysée in Switzerland, and Culturgest, Portugal. Kang is the recipient of Photolucida’s Critical Mass award in 2007, a 2006 New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship in photography, a fine-art photography award from the National Magazine Company in London, and an artist’s bursary from the Matthew Wrightson Charitable Trust. Her work has appeared in Vogue Hommes International, Blindspot, i-D, Tank, Art Review, New York Magazine, and Harper’s Bazaar Korea. Kang lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. www.heejinkang.com
HEE JIN KANG
© Alessandra Sanguinetti
Born in 1968, Argentinian photographer Martín Weber currently resides in Brooklyn, NY. He is a graduate of the University of Buenos Aires and the International Center for Photography in New York City (1993). A 1998 Guggenheim fellowship recipient, Weber has also been awarded a No Strings Foundation Grant (2005), a Prince Claus Grant (2004) and two Hasselblad Foundation grants (1999, 2001). He has exhibited his work in the U.S. at venues such as the Project in NYC and LA, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, TX, the International Center for Photography in New York, NY, Light Work's Robert Menshel Gallery in Syracuse, NY. Abroad, his work has been shown at the Photographer’s Gallery in London, the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires, the La Habana Art Biennial in Cuba, the Istanbul Art Biennial, the Mois de La Photo Maison de L’Amerique in Paris, and Communa de Milano in Milan. His work has been published by Light Work, in Contact Sheet issue #125.
Ariel Shanberg is the Executive Director of the Center for Photography at Woodstock, a not-for-profit, artist-centered organization, founded in 1977. Since its inception, CPW has worked to bring forth new voices, bold ideas, and foster dialogue in and through photography and related media with offerings that include exhibitions, workshops, lectures, workspace residencies for artists of color, publication, and fellowships. Since joining CPW in 1999, Shanberg has curated numerous exhibitions and currently serves as editor of CPW’s quarterly-publication, PQ. Shanberg has also contributed essays to accompany publication of the works of Stephan Hillerbrand & Mary Magsamen, Jeffery Milstein, Angelika Rinnhofer, and Sun-Joo Shin and has appeared in such publications as Contact Sheet. He has served on various panels and nominating committees and has been an invited juror and portfolio reviewer to Fotofest, SPE Conferences, Photo Lucida, Rhubarb Rhubarb, and Critical Mass, as well as an invited speaker at Bucknell College, Syracuse and Rutgers Universities. He was the 2007 SPE Mid-Atlantic and Northeast Regional Conference Chair, held in Woodstock, NY in 2007. www.cpw.org
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© Charise Isis
MARTÍN WEBER
ARIEL SHANBERG
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Commentary/Comentario Los mapas, como las fotografías, nos sirven de guía, nos revelan territorios tanto familiares como desconocidos de forma que podamos ver lo que tenemos enfrente y lo que nos rodea con nuevos ojos.
Martín Weber, Ganar la tinka, estar en paz con Dios, paz y justica social en el mundo (Win the Lottery, Be at Peace with God, Peace and Justice in the World). Toned gelatin silver print, 24x20”
Maps, like photographs, act as a guide, exposing us to territories both familiar and unknown in ways that allow us to see what is before us and what is around us, anew. They can offer sweeping overviews or highlight subsets of data. They can provide pinpoint detail. They can offer insight and analysis of personal or political (and yes, they can be both). They can be environmentally focused or industrially-minded. They both can recognize and transcend borders. Maps are like portraits, in that they can offer an intimate and contextual perspective of their subject. If we know how to decipher their respective symbols and markings, they can open up a deeper level of understanding. Within them lies the promise of the possibility of discovery, of opening a door to vast new universes if we hold the ability to decode its key. Working like cartographers whose graphs articulate what already exists in order for us to see the charted territory in a new light, Myra Greene, Hee Jin Kang, and Martin Weber illu-minate their respective subject matter by creating ‘maps’ and drawing connections between both physical and emotional points that are invisible to the naked eye. Their respective inquiries are most poignant when seen as a series, a collective body of work – or to emphasize the map metaphor, when all the quadrants are linked and we have the opportunity to engage simultaneously with both a detail and overview of their focus. Greene, Kang, and Weber survey their subjects through photographs, so that we may journey to a destination through the accumulated experience of their images. By taking hold of the respective maps they have placed before us, these three photographers set us on a course through which multiple paths may be taken, and a range of interpretations may be held by exploring the terrain they have surveyed. Of these three, Martin Weber is the most conscious of his role as a map maker. His interest in the power of portraiture and its ability to create a connection between the photographer’s subject and the viewer is at the center of his ongoing series A Map of Latin American Dreams. For 15 years, Martin Weber has traveled throughout the countries of Latin America including Argentina,
Nos pueden ofrecer una amplia visión general o enfocarse en un subgrupo de datos. Pueden proporcionarnos un detalle preciso. Pueden ayudarnos a alcanzar mayor entendimiento y mejor análisis de lo personal y lo político (y sí, pueden ser los dos). Pueden tener una orientación hacia la naturaleza o hacia lo industrial. Pueden reconocer y, al mismo tiempo, transcender las fronteras. Los mapas son como los retratos, en el sentido de que nos ofrecen una perspectiva íntima y contextual de su sujeto. Si sabemos cómo descifrar sus respectivos símbolos y señales, pueden revelarnos un nivel de entendimiento más profundo. En ellos se encuentra la promesa de la posibilidad del descubrimiento, de abrir una puerta a nuevos universos inmensos si somos capaces de descodificar la clave. Trabajando como cartógrafos cuyos gráficos articulan lo que ya existe para que podamos ver el territorio trazado bajo una nueva luz, Myra Greene, Hee Jin Kang y Martin Weber iluminan sus respectivos temas centrales mediante la creación de “mapas”, trazando conexiones entre puntos tanto físicos como emocionales que resultan invisibles al ojo humano. Sus respectivas investigaciones adquieren incluso mayor fuerza cuando se ven como parte de una serie, como obra artística colectiva, o, para continuar la metáfora del mapa, cuando todos los cuadrantes se conectan y tenemos la oportunidad de contemplar simultáneamente tanto el detalle como la totalidad de la visión del artista. Greene, Kang y Weber estudian a sus sujetos a través de fotografías, de forma que nosotros podamos emprender un viaje a través de la experiencia acumulada de sus imágenes. Al apoderarnos de estos mapas que nos han puesto enfrente, estos tres fotógrafos nos ponen en una ruta en la que se pueden tomar múltiples caminos y, al explorar el terreno que han inspeccionado, podemos llegar a una amplia gama de interpretaciones. De los tres, Martin Weber es el más consciente de su rol como cartógrafo. Su interés en el impacto y la capacidad del retrato para crear una conexión entre el sujeto del fotógrafo y el espectador se erige como elemento central de su serie A Map of Latin American Dreams (Un mapa de sueños latinoamericanos). A lo largo de 15 años, Martin Weber ha viajado por América Latina, incluyendo Argentina, Brasil, Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala, México, Nicaragua y Perú, durante períodos de hasta un mes en cada viaje para poder realmente abarcar la amplitud y complejidad de la gente de cada nación. Estimulado por el repetitivo ciclo histórico que se caracteriza por dificultades económicas, opresión militar, sueños rotos y promesas de reforma social y económica, Weber ha establecido su propio mapa de Latinoamérica. Con Un mapa de sueños latinoamericanos, el artista dibuja un trazado visual de la humanidad compartida entre las gentes de todas las naciones latinoamericanas, un mapa en el que se desdibujan las fronteras raciales, económicas y nacionales y en el que se articula una nueva topografía democráticamente humanista. Las imágenes de Weber, marcadas por el influjo de su experiencia en el ámbito teatral, nos ofrecen un delicado balance: ilustran la dura realidad en la que viven sus sujetos pero impregnada de sus
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Commentary/Comentario Brazil, Columbia, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Peru, for periods upwards of a month at a time in order to reach the breadth of each nation’s people. Spurred by the repetitive cycle of history involving ongoing economic hardship, military oppression, broken dreams, and promises for social and economic reform, Weber has established his own map of Latin America. With A Map of Latin American Dreams he visually charts the shared humanity amongst the people of the nations of Latin America, a map which blurs national, economic, and racial borders and articulates a new democratically humanistic topography. Weber’s images, which bear the influence of his experience in theater, offer a delicate balance – illustrating the often stark reality of his subjects’ living situation, with the infusion of their most intimate dream, expressed on a modest chalk board which he provides. Taken as a whole his work illustrates a range of dreams that span from material desire to existential philosophy. From country to country, Weber’s images create a map of potential. They reveal the overlaps and extensions of the individual human concerns within a wider world. The small selection featured here is but the tip of a vast archive. The images reveal the struggles of indigenous people as with the portrait entitled, I, Pajé, Want my Daughter to Study to Defend her Rights, Communidade Karapoto, Alagoas, Brazil. They express the dreams of parents whose everlasting concern is the well being of their children, as in the image, To Help my Children who are in the United States Pay Their Debt to the Coyote, Altos del Pinar, Xela, Guatemala, and reveal the philosophical, as displayed in the image entitled That our needs do not disturb our dreams, La Habana, Cuba. Weber’s subjects are by no means passive participants. They recognize the encounter between them and photographer as an opportunity to connect. Perhaps they see Weber standing before them with his camera as the medium through which the expression of that which they hold deep inside, can break through to the other side of the divide that is the reality of their situation – the prophecy found in history – and in doing so, become real and defy that prophecy. One could consider that in encouraging this expression, Weber has facilitated the charting of their aspirations and by placing their dreams on Weber’s chalkboard, he has set them on course to reach their desired destination. The experience of racism and prejudice is a fracturing one. To have a single aspect of one’s identity isolated and attacked, negates our complexity as individuals. The occurrence can rob you of any sense of wholeness previously felt. For Myra Greene, these accumulated experiences both on a personal and societal level, brought forth a need to revisit the terrain of her own appearance. Utilizing the nineteenth-century process of Ambrotype, a wet-plate collodion technique whose pointed history included use for the purpose of documenting ethnographic research in the late 1800’s, Greene charts her facial features, focusing on such extenuating parts as her teeth, lips, nose, and eyes as well as their coalescing terrain within the context of her profile. In doing so, she attempts to restructure that which was familiar but now feels fractured and alien. However – in Greene’s newly constructed map – a volatile terrain which resides somewhere between desire and repulsion, want and loathing is revealed.
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sueños más íntimos, los cuales aparecen expresados en una modesta pizarra que el artista les proporciona. Vista en su totalidad, esta obra representa una gama de sueños que van desde el deseo material hasta la filosofía existencial. De país en país, las imágenes de Weber crean un mapa de potenciales y revelan las formas en que coinciden y se extienden las preocupaciones humanas en todo el mundo. La pequeña selección mostrada aquí no es más que un pedacito de un vasto archivo. Las imágenes revelan la lucha de las poblaciones indígenas, como es el caso del retrato titulado “I, Paje, want my daughter to study to defend her rights, Communidade Karapoto, Alagoas, Brazil” (“Yo, Paje, quiero que mi hija estudie para defender sus derechos, Comunidad Karapoto, Alagoas, Brasil”). Expresan los sueños de padres cuya eterna preocupación es el bienestar de sus hijos, como en la imagen “To help my children who are in the United States pay their debt to the coyote, Altos del Pinar, Xela, Guatemala” (“Para ayudar a mis hijos que están en Estados Unidos a pagar su deuda al coyote, Altos del Pinar, Xela, Guatemala”), y revelan lo filosófico, como en la imagen que lleva por título “That our needs do not disturb our dreams, La Habana, Cuba” (“Que nuestras necesidades no perturben nuestros sueños, La Habana, Cuba”). Los sujetos de Weber no son en absoluto participantes pasivos. Reconocen su encuentro con el fotógrafo como una oportunidad de conexión. Quizás con Weber parado enfrente suyo, ven la cámara como el medio a través del cual la expresión de lo que llevan en lo más dentro de sí puede atravesar al otro lado de la línea divisoria que es la realidad de sus vidas – la profecía que encontramos en la historia – y, al lograr eso, poder convertirse en algo real y desafiar esa profecía. Podría decirse que, al fomentar esta expresión, Weber ha facilitado el trazado de sus aspiraciones y, al poner sus sueños en la pizarra de Weber, el artista les ha puesto en el camino hacia su ansiado destino. La experiencia del racismo y el prejuicio es una que produce fracturas. El que se aísle y ataque un solo aspecto de nuestra identidad niega nuestra complejidad como individuos. Es una experiencia que te puede arrebatar cualquier sentido de ti mismo como ser íntegro, no fragmentado, que hayas tenido con anterioridad. Para Myra Greene, la acumulación de este tipo de experiencias, tanto a un nivel personal como social, suscitó la necesidad de revisitar el territorio de su propia apariencia física. Mediante la utilización del ambrotipo, proceso fotográfico decimonónico basado en la técnica de placas húmedas al colodión, cuya carga histórica incluye su uso en la documentación de investigaciones etnográficas a finales del siglo XIX, Greene realiza un trazado de sus rasgos faciales, enfocándose en partes atenuantes como sus dientes, labios, nariz y ojos, así como el territorio que las unifica en el contexto de su perfil. Con ello, la artista trata de reestructurar lo que era familiar pero ahora se siente fracturado, extraño, ajeno. Sin embargo, en este nuevo mapa que construye Greene, se revela un terreno volátil que reside entre el deseo y la repulsión, entre el querer y el odiar. Al mirar las imágenes de Greene, se me ocurre que, cuando ejecuta estos retratos fragmentarios, se imagina al autor/fotógrafo como otra persona: una persona con prejuicios, un agresor, o quizás, en un rol completamente contradictorio, un amante. Y es que Greene utiliza el proceso mismo de producción de imágenes para enviar un
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In looking at Greene’s images, I imagine that when she executes these fragmentary portraits, she envisions the author/photographer is someone else – a bigot, an aggressor, or perhaps in a completely contradictory role, a lover. For Greene is utilizing her picture making process to send a message. The results of which is the volatility of matching gazes. The frayed edges that outline the perimeter of each glass plate echo that smoldering intensity which we read in Greene’s features. They reflect the frustration found within the isolated quadrants of her portrayal. Additionally, the scale of the pieces in her series plays an important emotive role. By necessity, Greene’s works are small, with each piece not measuring more than three by four inches. This would normally set expectations for the imagery to be intimate. Yet the fragmentary imagery of Greene’s facial features, which are rendered at a 1:1 scale with her actual face, appear mammoth. Myra Green’s series title, Character Recognition, is a loaded one, suggesting the notion of access and acceptance. The series brings to mind the purveying technology of biometrics, security measures linked to digital scans that chart the patterns and distances found within individual’s fingerprints, eyes, and voice. These measures are our personal pass codes, giving us access to the systems and spaces, which they guard. Our physical features must be matched to predetermined measurements; in failing to attain a high percentage of “character recognition”, we are barred access or worse. This type of encoded clearance is not new, and in Greene’s work, age-old measures of acceptance and passing are brought forth with the acuteness of a modern day lens and an antiquarian process. A photograph, not unlike a map, can find itself to be all that sole remaining expression of a place at a particular time. They become a document of record, serving as witness to our presence on a landscape that no longer but hints of such a time or inhabitation. Through her collective body of images in the project Sandy’s Deli Hee Jin Kang has graphed the personal, the idiosyncratic, amongst the generic terrain of her parent’s convenience store. Her images, which focus on the minutia within the surrounding environment, are full of signifiers that speak to her family’s inhabitation and layers of history of that corner street deli. Each image reads as topographic map, rendering the accumulation of memories and the passage of time – the days, months, and years spent overseeing the store. They capture the textures and accents that identify the place’s proprietors, revealing her parents’ proverbial fingerprints expressions amongst the packaged goods, lunch specials, glaring headlines of the city’s daily newspapers, and bottled drinks. In framing the mundane as monumental, Hee Jin, like photographers such as Walker Evans and Mitch Epstein before her, celebrates the utilitarian setting of a blue collar business and the lives and dreams that infused it. Like reading a map, we require a legend to decode the symbols and references, which lie within each photograph. Kang keys us into these landmarks through simple titles that illuminate the personal and direct our read of the terrain. Patriotic ephemeron communicates an immigrant’s embrace of their adoptive homeland. A hanging picture of Elvis reveals the owner’s musical love. A Budweiser poster promoting the World Cup in Korea, remains,
mensaje, todo lo cual da como resultado la volatilidad de miradas que se encuentran con igual intensidad. Los bordes desgastados que delínean el perímetro de cada placa de vidrio resaltan esa intensidad ardiente, provocadora, que percibimos en las facciones de Greene, reflejando asimismo la frustración que encontramos en cada cuadrante aislado de su retrato. La escala de las piezas que componen la serie juega también un importante papel emotivo. Por necesidad, las obras de Greene son de tamaño pequeño, con unas medidas que no suelen exceder tres por cuatro pulgadas, lo cual normalmente daría lugar a imágenes de carácter íntimo. Sin embargo, los fragmentos que corresponden a las facciones de Greene, representados a escala natural (es decir, a escala 1:1) con respecto a su rostro, adquieren unas dimensiones descomunales. El título de la serie de Myra Green, Character Recognition (Autenticación), tiene una fuerte carga, al sugerir la noción de acceso y aceptación. La serie hace referencia a la tecnología biométrica, dispositivos de seguridad conectados a lectores digitales que miden y trazan patrones y distancias que caracterizan las huellas dactilares, ojos y voz de cada individuo. Estas medidas son nuestros códigos de entrada personales, proporcionándonos acceso a los sistemas y espacios que esta tecnología trata de vigilar y proteger. Nuestros rasgos físicos deben corresponder a medidas predeterminadas; cuando no conseguimos un alto porcentaje de “autenticación”, se nos niega el acceso o incluso algo peor. Este tipo de autorización codificada no es nada nuevo y, en la obra de Greene, se crean antiguas medidas de aceptación y paso con la agudeza de una lente contemporánea y un proceso antiquísimo. Una fotografía, como un mapa, puede convertirse en la única expresión que queda de un lugar en un momento concreto. Pasan a ser documentos de archivo, testigos de nuestra presencia en un paisaje en el que ya sólo quedan restos de un pasado, rastros de haber sido habitado. A través de las imágenes recogidas en el proyecto Sandy’s Deli, Hee Jin Kang ha realizado un trazado de lo personal, lo idiosincrático, en el territorio genérico de la bodega de sus padres. Sus imágenes, que se enfocan en los detalles del entorno, están repletas de significantes que trazan la presencia de su familia y las varias capas de historia con las que cuenta la bodega. Cada imagen puede leerse como un mapa topográfico, la representación de la acumulación de recuerdos y del paso del tiempo: los días, meses y años que se han pasado trabajando en la tienda. Capturan las texturas y acentos que identifican a los dueños del lugar, revelando las proverbiales expresiones de las huellas de sus padres entre los paquetes de alimentos, los especiales para el almuerzo, los titulares chillones de los diarios de la ciudad y las botellas de bebidas. Al encuadrar lo mundano como si fuese monumental, Hee Jin, al igual que fotógrafos como Walker Evans y Mitch Epstein antes que ella, celebra el entorno utilitario de un negocio propio de la clase trabajadora y las vidas y sueños que lo habitan. Al igual que con la lectura de un mapa, necesitamos una leyenda que nos permita entender el código de símbolos y referencias presente en cada fotografía. Kang nos ofrece las claves para comprender estos puntos de referencia mediante títulos sencillos que iluminan lo personal y dirigen nuestra lectura del terreno. “Patriotic ephemeron” (“Efímero patriótico”) comunica cómo un
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though dated, on the wall, a proud and reminiscent testament to their homeland. However, she cannot resist the call of the aesthetician she is amongst such fertile terrain and draws us into caverns and hills of the Deli’s landscape. The result is a surprisingly emotionally-laden topography of Sandy’s Deli. Though the series has become in many ways a final record of the store since her parents sold it in late 2005, due to a family health emergency, it is interesting to note that the series originated for another purpose. Kang initiated her project in order to discover a path to better understand and connect with her parents. Brought to the United States at the age of three by her parents, Hee Jin’s Korean is as limited as her parent’s English. For years, their communications were defined by the vast void that existed, in light of not having the language to express more than conversational thoughts and sentiments. In photographing these seemingly nondescript spaces, Hee Jin has indeed charted that territory of the unexpressed which lay between parents and child. The photographer’s desire to map or chart goes back to the earliest days of the medium. Such examples include Eugene Atgét’s Parisian streets and rooftops and Bernice Abbott’s series Changing New York in the early 20th century. Coupled with the intentions of the photographers is the manner in which images can be read and considered. We read photographs in a similar manner to the way we read maps. There is the need to consider the region as a whole, the selecting of a starting point and the meandering paths that take us to our ultimate but not always predetermined destination. They act like charts, cataloging what is well traversed and seeking to comprehend what remains unvisited. Not unlike the FSA photographers of the mid 1930’s, Greene, Kang and Weber each set out to discover, chart, and ultimately illuminate the viewer. They have each created an archive that maps out terrain, both physical and emotional which was not recognized prior to their arrival. They remind us that photography, like maps, offers the lure of a destination and the promise of a voyage. Ariel Shanberg
inmigrante acepta a su tierra adoptiva. Un cuadro de Elvis revela la pasión musical de su dueño. Un poster de Budweiser promocionando la Copa Mundial de Fútbol en Corea sigue pegado a la pared, un testamento a su patria anticuado pero orgulloso y nostálgico. Sin embargo, la artista no puede resistir el tirón de su inclinación estética en medio de este terreno tan sumamente fértil y nos atrae y dirige hacia las cavernas y colinas que componen el paisaje de la bodega. El resultado es una topografía de Sandy’s Deli con una sorprendente alta carga emotiva. Aunque esta serie ha pasado a ser, en gran medida, un archivo final de la tienda desde que sus padres la vendieron a finales de 2005 debido a una emergencia médica en la familia, resulta interesante resaltar que, en sus orígenes, esta serie surgió con otro propósito. Kang comenzó este proyecto con la intención de encontrar una forma de entender mejor y sentirse más conectada con sus padres. El coreano de Hee Jin, a la que sus padres trajeron a los Estados Unidos a los tres años, es tan limitado como el inglés de ellos. Durante años, sus comunicaciones estuvieron definidas por el inmenso vacío que existía entre ellos, producto de la falta de una lengua común que les permitiese expresar algo más que pensamientos y sentimientos a nivel coloquial. Al fotografiar estos espacios, aparentemente anodinos, Hee Jin ha logrado, en efecto, trazar un mapa del territorio de lo no-expresado que se interpone entre padres e hijos. El deseo del fotógrafo por trazar mapas puede rastrearse hasta la primera etapa del medio, con ejemplos como Eugene Atgét y sus calles y tejados parisinos o Bernice Abbott y su serie Changing New York de principios del siglo XX. Tan relevantes son las intenciones de los fotógrafos como la forma en que se pueden leer y tomar en consideración las imágenes. Nuestra lectura de una fotografía es similar a la que haríamos de un mapa. Debemos tener en consideración la totalidad de la región, para luego seleccionar un punto de arranque y los varios caminos que, en su vagar, nos llevarán a un destino final que no siempre está predeterminado. Cumplen una función gráfica, catalogando el terreno conocido al tiempo que buscan comprehender lo que aún queda por descubrir. Con ciertas similitudes a los fotógrafos de la FSA de mediados de los años 30, Greene, Kang y Weber se proponen descubrir, trazar y, en última instancia, iluminar al espectador. Cada uno de ellos ha creado un archivo que hace las veces de mapa de un terreno, tanto físico como emocional, que no había sido reconocido hasta su llegada. Estos artistas nos recuerdan que la fotografía, como los mapas, nos brinda el atractivo de un destino y la promesa de un viaje. Ariel Shanberg
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Intercambio
“Valdir Cruz is a magician of chiaroscuro, of tones and semi-tones, as if he were an engraver working upon metal with the refined aquatint technique, or an etcher, whose acid bites the deep tones of black into the plate, rendered velvety by the concentrated ink or the nuances of various scales of grey.” – Emanoel Araujo
Valdir Cruz, Quedas do Iguaçú V, Foz do Iguaçú, Paraná, Brazil, 2002. Pigment on paper, 34x30”
The Water’s Way by James Enyeart For more than two decades Valdir Cruz has concentrated his considerable artistic vision on making the public aware of those things that bind nature to its prodigal species, humanity. His photographs reveal that nature and humanity are one, rooted in a symbiotic relationship of irrefutable consequence. His landscapes are elegant metaphors for the whole of nature and a means which we can gauge the health of the planet. In our relationship with nature we are most often in awe of what we see and feel, but at times we are a danger to our host, losing sight of the essential harmony and balance that is dictated by our dependence upon it. Cruz was raised in the midst of a geography where there was constant struggle for survival between nature and human beings. The greed for precious metals scarred both the landscape and humanity alike. Agriculture took its toll, but became a renewable natural resource for the benefit countless generations of immigrants. And there were always those who lived in the forests in
seemingly complete harmony with nature. Cruz became a realist about the varied landscapes that surrounded him, seeking asylum in his observations, trying to reveal the imbalance wherever he has found it. In a good year when rain was plentiful and roads and trails were passable, there would be nearly two hundred waterfalls to select from for his personal exploration. For ten years he traveled an adventurous route of unparalleled natural beauty throughout the Brazilian countryside. He traveled by horseback, on foot, and when possible in a jeep, camping for weeks at a time to reach various waterfalls and to be as close to the landscape as possible. At times the waters way would lead him to venture into regions of the upper Paraná known only to local inhabitants, not previously visited or seen by visitors from the outside. While Cruz is aware of a growing threat of developing hydroelectric plants to the maze of mystical waterfalls in Paraná, he is also mindful of the great benefits that controlled energy
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Valdir Cruz, Salto Segredo, Jaguariaíva, Paraná, Brazil, 2004. Pigment on paper, 38x30”
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Valdir Cruz, Salto Sintura da Noiva, Porto Vitoria, Paraná, Brazil, 2005. Pigment on paper, 38x30”
sources will bring to remote villages and towns throughout this vast and unique region. He knows that the inherent good of this kind of progress will come at a price, which may well mean an end to the extraordinary beauty and ecology of some of the waterfalls along the waters way. His decade long trek to photograph as many falls as possible has been an attempt to produce a cumulative portrait of a landscape that may soon change forever. In doing so he hopes to inspire a greater awareness of the waters way and the unique aesthetic experience of observing when water becomes its own monumental landscape.
Valdir Cruz, Salto São Geronimo II, Guarapuava, Paraná, Brazil, 2005. Pigment on paper, 38x30”
soft light necessary for long exposures, creating images that otherwise do not exist. It is only on film and paper that one can perceive the beauty of the waterfalls in this form. It is a kind of surreal beauty that the eyes cannot extract from reality alone. It is my way of seeing the waterfalls as something beyond nature.” Among those who enjoy this book by Cruz, few will ever have the opportunity to visit the waterfalls, which took him over a decade to photograph. And even if we could physically be there, it is unlikely that we would be able to experience in person the reality of the moment represented by his images. That is as it should be because what he offers in these images is something that he has created from the raw materials of nature in order to reveal the very essence of what makes the waterfalls aesthetically significant.
While Cruz is a witness for posterity, he is also an artist with a desire to imbue what he has seen and experienced with visual significance, which reportage alone cannot do. Cruz is looking for something new, not seen before by others. He is painfully aware of the history of clichés and artistic monuments that surround the subject of waterfalls. He has, therefore, looked to the inherent nature of his medium to provide different aesthetic avenues. He photographs the falls at first light during the period before full sunrise and in the waning light of evening. He has said in this regard that, “In that way the Valdir Cruz next to Salto Curucaca, available as a part Creator provides me with the of En Foco’s Print Collectors Program. Photo: © Ray Llanos
James Enyeart Excerpt from Valdir Cruz’s new book, O Caminho das Águas. Published by Cosac Naif (Brazil, 2007), and sponsored by the Stickel Foundation with support from Throckmorton Fine Art. James Enyeart previously served as director of both of the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY and and the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, AZ.
For more of Valdir's images, visit Throckmorton Fine Art, www.throckmorton-nyc.com and www.valdircruz.com
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Critical Mass "I use drawing, photography and collage to examine the historical and metaphysical aspects of storytelling as they relate to the modern African Diaspora.Through collage and layering, each work becomes a repository for memories, dreams, and historical tales. Together they give voice to the lives, experiences, and creative expressions of individuals whose lives and wisdom remain largely marginalized by the dominant cultural agenda." – KESHA BRUCE
Kesha Bruce, Sweet Sister #1, (Re)calling and (Re)telling series, 2007. C print, 14x11”
Kesha Bruce, Secrets in the House #2, (Re)calling and (Re)telling series, 2007. C print, 14x11”
New Works #11
NEW WORKS #12
by Melissa Harris
DEADLINE: July 7, 2008 JUROR: Deborah Willis Although this year’s winners and honorable mentions in En Foco’s annual New Works program employ divergent working processes and represent a multiplicity of ethnic backgrounds and sensibilities, there is a common thread to their considerations. Each of them, one way or another, is addressing issues of personal history and along with this, in most cases, the intertwined concept of identity.
Donald Daedalus, Maya, If I Were Beautiful and Symmetrical, Too series 2007. Archival pigment print, 10x30”
Donald Daedalus, Micah, If I Were Beautiful and Symmetrical, Too series 2007. Archival pigment print, 10x30”
At times, this is manifested very literally in the work, and in other cases more metaphorically, but the sense of the photographer attempting to come to terms with some sense “otherness” is pervasive. Whereas Kesha Bruce’s mixed media digital project, (Re)calling and (Re)telling conceptualizes cultural and ethnic identities and histories, Donald Daedalus’s If I Were Beautiful and Symmetrical Too looks at cultural appropriation and issues of beauty in terms of the Western concept of symmetry.
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"In each cultural group there are different characteristics we as humans use to differentiate one another. Perhaps the boldest or most definitive is whether a person is physically beautiful. For example, in much of Western society, it is thought that symmetry is the basis for beauty... However, according to a Japanese view of aesthetics (Wabi-sabi), the asymmetrical, imperfect and incomplete, constitute beauty." – DONALD DAEDALUS
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Critical Mass "Many of my images capture memories of the Mexico I grew up in as a girl-the raspados de tamarindo (shaved ice with tamarind syrup), the gelatinas sold in the streets, and my grandparents' home, where I spent every Saturday, old and tilted due to frequent earthquakes.Through my photography I also attempt to unravel and unveil my Mexican identity in the U.S., capturing the sense of being in a labyrinth, the multiple identities that come into play, the sense of isolation at time, and other times familia and community." – ADRIANA KATZEW
Adriana Katzew, Mexican Women Sitting, Y se repite series, 2007. Archival pigment print, 17x11”
Adriana Katzew, Mexican Field Worker Holding Baby, Y se repite series, 2007. Archival pigment print, 17x11”
The third winner, Adriana Katzew, explores Mexican identity on both sides of the border in “Y se repite” (And it Repeats Itself), a project which, in its blurring of the past and the present, considers migrant workers in Vermont, and their sense of isolation. The honorable mentions, Wanda Acosta, Myra Greene, Charlie Grosso, and Esther Hidalgo continue in the examination of identity. Acosta does so via an avatar, Starlette Van Dyke, in her digital photo journey through virtual worlds, while Greene’s Character Recognition questions what people see when they see her, doing so by looking at ethnographic classification and other categorization techniques, and manifesting her findings through ambrotypes. Less involved with the specifics of identity based in ethnicity, Grosso engages with how we live our lives, and issues of memory and
En Foco's New Works Photography Awards #11 APRIL 29 - JUNE 14, 2008 OPENING RECEPTION:
FRIDAY, MAY 2, 6:00-9:00PM
El Taller Boricua Galleries The Julia De Burgos Cultural Center 1680 Lexington Ave. @106th Street New York, NY 10029
212.831.4333
www.enfoco.org www.tallerboricua.org DIRECTIONS:
#6 Train to 103rd Street HOURS:
Tuesday - Saturday 12 - 6pm, Thursday 1 - 7pm
"I am interested in the visual representation of identity: how my personal experiences as a queer Latina woman construct my sense of self and how different socio-political contexts might perceive, pressure, as well as re-construct, that self." – WANDA ACOSTA Wanda Acosta, Spill, Starlette Van Dyke series, 2007. C-print, 7x12”
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Critical Mass childhood in terms of how they inform who we are. In Wok the Dog, she examines the commerce of markets in Taiwan (the source of childhood fears) weighing the livelihood of the vendors against the food source that supports them – the animals who must die for them to survive financially. Finally, in …En el idioma… Esther Hidalgo deconstructs the notion of the family photo in order to understand the notions of cultural memory, and then reclaim cultural history. It was a pleasure to have the opportunity to look at the work of these photographers, and all of the others who submitted to New Works # 11 – I am grateful to En Foco for the privilege. Melissa Harris Editor in Chief, Aperture
Charlie Grosso, Raising Child on top of a Chicken Cage, Guangzhou, China, Wok the dog series, 2006. Archival pigment print, 16x20"
"In my work as a photographer I examine how we live our lives. Each photo is an investigation, each series a quest.The focus of the question differs from project to project, yet the essence is the same: how do we live, love and dream?" – CHARLIE GROSSO
Myra Greene, Untitled, Character Recognition series, 2006. Ambrotype on black glass, 3x4”
"My body responds to the camera, and simple shifts in gaze and movement offer complex readings about my control in how others read both my race and these images. Gesture starts to override race, offering readings of sensuality, defiance, aggression and fear." – MYRA GREENE
En Foco's New Works Photography Awards is an annual program selecting three to seven U.S. based photographers of African, Asian, Latino, Native American, or Pacific Islander heritage through an open call for submissions. Acting as a creative incubator, it enables artists to create or complete an in-depth photographic series exploring themes of their choice, while providing an honoraria and infrastructure fo a professional exhibition in New York. New Works is funded in part by the New York State Council on the Arts, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Additional support comes from the Bronx Council on the Arts, Bogen, Lowepro, Print File, Fuji and Modernage.
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Esther Hidalgo, Untitled #7, …En El Idioma… series, 2007. Ink transfer on paper, 8x10”
"I often combine original photography with pre-existing imagery and culturally significant objects. Employing traditional and alternative photographic practices allows me to lend myself more intimately to the process of image making as these require a deeper involvement and commitment on the part of the artist." – ESTHER HIDALGO
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Critical Mass
En Foco Touring Gallery Community Exhibitions Helena V. de Vengoechea
When does an individual’s thought become externalized to create a reaction in a community’s consciousness? How does one go about creating that dialog? For Helena V. De Vengoechea, one of those dialogs is expressed through the anonymous writings, stenciling and graffiti found on the walls on any given street in any city in her body of work called Discreet Messages. She states that the words are created “for the individuals who are searching for humor, visual pleasure or guidance.” In Central and South America many of those Helena V. de Vengoechea, Never More, Argentina, 2006. Archival pigment print, 20x24" words are created in the heat of passion, under systems of government that often turn In her work from Argentina, a not so discreet message is passed a deaf ear to anyone who is critical, in many cases the voices of on through her eyes in the messages adorning the walls of the the poor, the working class and intelligentsia. It leaves the city streets critical of the ruling government and the impact of a activists and artists few venues for public expression other then depressed economy. One piece that she calls attention to, is a the solitary unadorned wall that over night is transformed. It popular theme that can be found in almost any Latin American becomes one of the flash points for social change in the hands of country: an image of an elaborate stencil with the words “The an artist / activist who unleash their critiques in the dark of soul of a country cannot be imprisoned or disappear.” A call night. Their role is to challenge our perceptions of the status quo which can be recognized in any place around the world for the and our myopic view of our lives; to look beyond the vagaries basic human right to live free and not in fear. and relentless grays of daily living, by doing so, transform the landscape of life giving it the color of meaning. Her work in Bogotá, Columbia is quieter and humorous than the De Vengoechea does not allow us to easily dismiss this visual noise that surrounds us on a daily basis, but as an invitation to transform oneself through the voice of another.
heavy political dialog that is characterized in her work from Argentina. She seems to be more concerned with the country’s search for an identity and nationalistic pride. Those simple sentiments are more subdued and found in unusual places such as a heart on a sign near the word Columbia. Through her work she reminds us not to take everything you see for granted; it can change overnight by a word or an image. Ricky Flores Ricky Flores is a staff photographer for The Journal News and advisory board member for En Foco. He is fascinated by the iconic image and its impact on society.
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Helena de Vengoechea’s work was part of En Foco’s Touring Gallery community exhibition program, on view from November 28, 2007 to January 9, 2008, at the Vantage Point Gallery at ICP/The Point CDC, in the Bronx. En Foco’s Touring Gallery features presentations by emerging photographers in community spaces throughout New York City, curated by staff and/or emerging guest curators. Photographers gain professional exhibition experience, visibility, an opportunity to interact with local audiences, are awarded an honorarium and a camera bag from Lowepro.
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Nueva Luz photographic journal Published by En Foco, Inc. 1738 Hone Avenue Bronx, NY 10461 718/931-9311 www.enfoco.org
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