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From Grand Concourse to ‘Fort Apache,’ photographers explore their Bronx roots By Shant Shahrigian sshah@riverdalepress.com
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he Bronx has not seen stickball, Yiddish newspapers or rows of laundry hanging out of apartments in years. These symbols of a bygone era, along with images of subsequent periods, starkly come back to life in the Bronx Museum of the Arts’ latest show. Dozens of black-and-white photos by Jules Aaron (1921-2008) provide an intimate glimpse of Jewish life in the borough in the 1960s. During the artist’s childhood along the Grand Concourse, Jewish people comprised the Bronx’s largest ethnic group. After leaving the neighborhood to pursue an eminent career in astrophysics, Mr. Aaron returned time and again to photograph his parents living on East 172nd and other mid-century sights in the neighborhood, according to a forthcoming essay by Marvin Heiferman. “My Mother Hanging Laundry in the Yard: Bronx, NY” depicts the subject from the point of view that a child playing in the street might have had. Mr. Aaron uses an upward angle to show his mother in the middle of this humble chore, with sunny sheets on clotheslines lending a lively rhythm to the composition. One can imagine the woman ready to call her children to dinner in the next instant. Framing her at a height also gives a somewhat divine aura to Mr. Aaron’s mother. Other photos by Mr. Aaron depict the Bronx’s thriving Jewish community. Families like the Aarons who moved out of cramped quarters on the Lower East Side came to view the Grand Concourse and its environs as “a ‘boulevard of dreams’ to New York Jews,” Mr. Heiferman notes. Mr. Aaron’s work shows how the idea played out, with candid black-andwhite pictures of a girl pushing a boy on a tricycle, a group of women having a sidewalk chat and a man wearing a thoughtful frown and a derby hat underneath the L. The other parts of “Three Photographers from the Bronx: Jules Aaron, Morton Broffman and Joe Conzo” include Mr. Broffman’s (1928-1992) photos from the civil rights era and Mr. Conzo’s (born in 1963) youthful shots of protests against the movie “Fort Apache, The Bronx.”
Borough unity There are no images of Riverdale or the rest of the northwest Bronx in the show. But Mr. Conzo, who grew up in the South Bronx and currently lives in Norwood, said the exhibit encourages visitors to view the borough as a whole. “I don’t want to sound condescending,” he remarked in a phone interview. “Riverdale hasn’t felt they are the Bronx, but they are the Bronx.” “The Bronx has always had a bad reputation, beginning in the 70s and 80s, but a lot of good things came out of the Bronx,” added the artist, whose work mostly focuses on hip-hop. His images of the 1980 protests against “Fort Apache, The Bronx” depict the activism as a family affair. Mr. Broffman’s grandmother, Evelina Antonetty, helped organize the demonstrations that criticized the movie as racist, and Mr. Conzo’s camera honed in on children and youths in the streets, as well as prominent activists like “Young Lord” Richie Perez. The then-15-year-old Mr. Conzo’s comprehensive coverage ranged from the star of the movie, Paul Newman, to a little girl whose expression is as earnest and passionate as any of the adults’. “That’s how we demonstrated back then — it was families,” Mr. Conzo said. “It impacted the whole family, films like that.” Family is a also central theme in Mr. Broffman’s photos of the civil rights movement. Alongside ominous images of police cracking down on protesters, there are photos of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. next to his
CLOCKWISE FROM top: Morton Broffman captured Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. getting a kiss from his wife, Coretta, at a 1965 rally in Montgomery, Alabama; Jules Aaron’s photo shows laundry hanging near the Grand Concourse; Joe Conzo documented a 1980 protest against the movie ‘Fort Apache, The Bronx.’ Photos courtesy of the Bronx Museum of the Arts
wife. In one, Mr. Broffman captures Coretta Scott King giving her husband an affectionate kiss on the cheek, a small token of love amid an atmosphere of hatred in Montgomery, Alabama in 1965. “A lot of other photographers, because this was a very brutal time... focused on the dog attacking people or people being hosed down,” observed Antonio Sergio Bessa, the museum’s director of curatorial and education programs. “But Morton had this really
wonderful eye to look at people.” Mr. Bressa said the photographers in the exhibit “speak to each other.” “The dialogue is about this passion for community and this idea of grassroots,” he explained. “It’s community in the most basic way,” he said while pointing to Mr. Aaron’s work. “The family is a community, right? And then the Jewish community is kind of an extension of the family.” (More phtoes on page B11)
Where to see it “Three Photographers from the Bronx: Jules Aaron, Morton Broffman and Joe Conzo” runs as the Bronx Museum of the Arts, located at 1040 Grand Concourse, through Sunday, June 14. The museum is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p,m. on Thursday and Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday and Sunday. Admission is free.
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