{"id":441,"date":"2009-06-05T18:12:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-05T18:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/?p=441"},"modified":"2009-06-05T18:12:00","modified_gmt":"2009-06-05T18:12:00","slug":"new-yorkcamilo-jose-vergara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/2009\/06\/new-yorkcamilo-jose-vergara\/","title":{"rendered":"New York\/Camilo Jos\u00e9 Vergara"},"content":{"rendered":"


Vergara exhibition at the New York Historical Soceity — \u00a9 Brian Rose<\/span><\/p>\n

A few thoughts on seeing <\/span>Harlem, Photographs by Camilo Jos\u00e9 Vergara 1970-2009<\/a> at the New York Historical Society:<\/span><\/p>\n

This is not a photography show in the traditional sense,\u201d Vergara says during a stroll through the New-York Historical Society gallery. \u201cI\u2019m really interested in issues, what replaces what, what\u2019s the thrust of things. Photographers don\u2019t usually get at that\u2014they want to show you one frozen image that you find amazing. For me, the more pictures the better.<\/span> (Smithsonion Magazine)<\/span><\/p>\n

The problem is the photographs are presented as if they were stand-alones–traditional c prints matted and framed with small neatly printed text panels. Vergara\u2019s project would be greatly enhanced by a more immersive experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

There was one low resolution video screen tucked off to the side in which successive images of different scenes ran in a loop. Otherwise, framed prints are stacked one above the other or in groups, the bright white mattes jumping off the warmed-toned walls and taking up too much space between images. I had to bend way over to see the lowest images.<\/span><\/p>\n


Vergara exhibition — \u00a9 Brian Rose<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not suggesting that Vergara\u2019s work should be presented as a multimedia three-ring circus. But I don\u2019t understand the traditional look of the NYHS exhibit. <\/span>Vergara\u2019s website<\/a>, which contains the Harlem project along with his similar documentations of Camden, New Jersey and Richmond, California attempts to be interactive and less gallery-like, but the website is yet another of these tedious flash based sites–tiny text, tiny clickable squares on contextless maps.<\/span><\/p>\n


Invicible Cities, Camilo Jos\u00e9 Vergara <\/span>website<\/a><\/p>\n


Harlem storefront, Camilo Jos\u00e9 Vergara<\/span><\/p>\n

I think of my photographs as bricks which when placed next to each other give shape and meaning to a place. I see the images of neighborhoods arranged according to time and location, linking the hundreds of stories that are a place\u2019s history. This is the way photographs can tell how Harlem evolved and what it gained and lost in the process.<\/span><\/p>\n


Vergara exhibition — \u00a9 Brian Rose<\/span><\/p>\n

Vergara admits that he comes from the street\/documentary photography aesthetic (Bresson, Levitt, Evans, etc.), but he insists that his work not be regarded as art photography, rather a sort of photographic sociology or anthroplogy. What I would like to see, however\u2014regardless of where one places Vergara\u2019s brand of photography\u2014is a more rigorous approach to the medium. Most of the pictures have been made with small cameras despite his interest in architecture and landscape. The graininess undercuts the intention to convey information and detail, and many of the compositions of static subjects seem unnecessarily slap dash, made on the run.<\/span><\/p>\n


Harlem door, Camilo Jos\u00e9 Vergara<\/span><\/p>\n


Vergara exhibition — \u00a9 Brian Rose<\/span><\/p>\n

The image grouping above is meant to illustrate the encroachment of security and surveillance in the public realm. In this case, Harlem. Vergara gives us a close-up view of one of NYPDs mobile observation towers, a metal door with padlocks, a menacing dog in a window, a close-up of a pole festooned with video cameras, and a high gated turnstile similar to those seen in subway stations all over the city.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is photography as show and tell.<\/p>\n

<\/span>


Harlem panorama, Camilo Jos\u00e9 Vegara<\/span>

For me, the most interesting pictures are the panoramas taken over a number of years. Seeing the way in which blocks change–either losing buildings or gaining new ones–sometimes the changes are very subtle.
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Vergara exhibition at the New York Historical Soceity — \u00a9 Brian Rose A few thoughts on seeing Harlem, Photographs by Camilo Jos\u00e9 Vergara 1970-2009 at the New York Historical Society: This is not a photography show in the traditional sense,\u201d Vergara says during a stroll through the New-York Historical Society gallery. \u201cI\u2019m really interested in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}