CAMILO JOSE VERGARA By Night in LA
2006 West Florence Ave, LA, 2013 16 x 20 inch Digital C-‐Print Signed, titled, and dated by the artist in ink on verso From a limited edition of ten $2,200 [Unframed].
8260 S. Main St, LA, 2013 16 x 20 inch Digital C-‐Print Signed, titled, and dated by the artist in ink on verso From a limited edition of ten $2,200 [Unframed].
219 East Florence, LA, 2013 16 x 20 inch Digital C-‐Print Signed, titled, and dated by the artist in ink on verso From a limited edition of ten $2,200 [Unframed].
5251 South Broadway, LA, 2013 16 x 20 inch Digital C-‐Print Signed, titled, and dated by the artist in ink on verso From a limited edition of ten $2,200 [Unframed].
8260 S. Main St, LA, 2013 16 x 20 inch Digital C-‐Print Signed, titled, and dated by the artist in ink on verso From a limited edition of ten $2,200 [Unframed].
19818 S. Vermont Ave, LA, 2013 16 x 20 inch Digital C-‐Print Signed, titled, and dated by the artist in ink on verso From a limited edition of ten $2,200 [Unframed].
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South Main at 109 Street, LA, 2013 16 x 20 inch Digital C-‐Print Signed, titled, and dated by the artist in ink on verso From a limited edition of ten $2,200 [Unframed].
Wrecking Crew Church, 11250 S. Avalon Blvd, LA, 2013 16 x 20 inch Digital C-‐Print Signed, titled, and dated by the artist in ink on verso From a limited edition of ten $2,200 [Unframed].
11151 South Broadway, LA, 2013 16 x 20 inch Digital C-‐Print Signed, titled, and dated by the artist in ink on verso From a limited edition of ten $2,200 [Unframed].
10114 South Broadway, LA, 2013 16 x 20 inch Digital C-‐Print Signed, titled, and dated by the artist in ink on verso From a limited edition of ten $2,200 [Unframed].
435 Stanford Ave, LA, 2013 16 x 20 inch Digital C-‐Print Signed, titled, and dated by the artist in ink on verso From a limited edition of ten $2,200 [Unframed].
9022 South Broadway, LA, 2013 16 x 20 inch Digital C-‐Print Signed, titled, and dated by the artist in ink on verso From a limited edition of ten $2,200 [Unframed].
7421 S. Figueroa, LA, 2013 16 x 20 inch Digital C-‐Print Signed, titled, and dated by the artist in ink on verso From a limited edition of ten $2,200 [Unframed].
9530 South Broadway, LA, 2013 16 x 20 inch Digital C-‐Print Signed, titled, and dated by the artist in ink on verso From a limited edition of ten $2,200 [Unframed].
4029 South Broadway, LA, 2013 16 x 20 inch Digital C-‐Print Signed, titled, and dated by the artist in ink on verso From a limited edition of ten $2,200 [Unframed].
7000 South Vermont Ave, LA, 2013 16 x 20 inch Digital C-‐Print Signed, titled, and dated by the artist in ink on verso From a limited edition of ten $2,200 [Unframed].
800 East 62th Street, LA, 2013 16 x 20 inch Digital C-‐Print Signed, titled, and dated by the artist in ink on verso From a limited edition of ten $2,200 [Unframed].
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View North Towards 3 Street Along Alley of Westlake, LA, 2013 16 x 20 inch Digital C-‐Print Signed, titled, and dated by the artist in ink on verso From a limited edition of ten $2,200 [Unframed].
623 Crocker Street, LA, 2013 16 x 20 inch Digital C-‐Print Signed, titled, and dated by the artist in ink on verso From a limited edition of ten $2,200 [Unframed].
9014 South Vermont Ave, LA, 2013 16 x 20 inch Digital C-‐Print Signed, titled, and dated by the artist in ink on verso From a limited edition of ten $2,200 [Unframed].
ROSEGALLERY is pleased to announce By Night in LA by Camilo José Vergara, on view concurrently with Bruce Davidson’s Los Angeles 1964/2012, 17 August through 14 September, 2013. A reception for the artists will be held on 7 September, 2013 from six to eight. Camilo José Vergara considers himself an “archivist of decline,” documenting changes in the urban landscape over time. Year after year, he returns to photograph the same places, creating an accumulation of images that present the ever-‐changing history of a community. Vergara depicts buildings as a stand-‐ in for their inhabitants, stating that “a people’s past, including their accomplishments, aspirations and failures, are reflected less in the faces, postures and clothing of those who live in these neighborhoods than in the material, built environment in which they move and that they modify over time.” These images of space over time act as a collective portrait of a community with a depth and scope that a single portrait could not afford.
In the series By Night in LA, Vergara returned to the familiar structures he photographed during the day. The buildings take on new character and significance when daylight’s brightness gives way to darkness. Vergara writes, “it was not the stars that illuminated the LA night, it was electric lights. Contrasting with the day view, light at night often came from the buildings themselves…fences and spikes illuminated from behind and alleys lit with patches of yellow tungsten, white fluorescent, and neon lights.” These artificial lights describe the buildings in such a way that heightens the loneliness of Vergara’s almost empty cityscapes. From shops covered by text to a solitary church lit by a streetlight, Vergara’s buildings imply the people who built, frequent, and inhabit them. Vergara gives voice to the struggles of the absent inhabitants of these overlooked communities not by exploiting their image, but by presenting their environment as a straight document. Camilo José Vergara (b. 1944, Santiago, Chile) has documented America’s disenfranchised and marginalized urban communities for over four decades. Vergara came to the US in the 1960s from Chile to study at Notre Dame University. During his graduate studies in sociology at Columbia University, Vergara developed his interest in the relationship between environment and society. He has published numerous books, including Silent Cities: The Evolution of the American Cemetery (1989), The New American Ghetto (1995), American Ruins (1999), Twin Towers Remembered (2001), Unexpected Chicagoland (2002), Subway Memories (2004), and How the Other Half Worships (2005). His photographs have been exhibited internationally at such institutions as the National Building Museum, the Getty Research Institute and J. Paul Getty Museum, and the Cooper-‐Hewitt National Design Museum. In 2002 he was awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant. In 2013, Vergara became the first photographer to receive the National Humanities Medal, presented to him by President Barack Obama at the White House.