{"id":65635,"date":"2018-05-24T18:58:26","date_gmt":"2018-05-24T16:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?p=65635"},"modified":"2018-05-24T18:58:26","modified_gmt":"2018-05-24T16:58:26","slug":"joseph-rodriguez-spanish-harlem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/joseph-rodriguez-spanish-harlem\/","title":{"rendered":"Diese Schnappsch\u00fcsse aus Spanish Harlem zeigen die Menschen, die das Herzst\u00fcck dieses Viertels ausmachen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" Saturday Night Cards<\/em>, 1987<\/p>\n

Joseph Rodriguez firmly believes that photography saved his life. \u201cWithout it I probably would have shot somebody, or I\u2019d be in prison \u2014 that\u2019s just the world I came from.\u201d Brooklyn born and raised, the seminal photographer has devoted his career to social documentary, cultivating his pervasive image-making style in the process. His photographs tell of another America, and of those neglected by the American Dream \u2014 from the so-called hoodlums of L.A\u2019s East Side gangs, to the \u201clifers\u201d at the liberty of the U.S. prison system.<\/span>
\nRiffing on the poignant intimacy he admired in the work of his photographic forefathers, Bill Brandt and Chris Killip among them, Rodriguez has birthed his own approach to social documentation that\u2019s at once self-conscious and irrevocably humanist. It\u2019s one that\u2019s proved capable of encapsulating the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the incomprehensible aftermath of 9\/11, but it\u2019s Rodriguez\u2019s pictures of Spanish Harlem \u2014 New York\u2019s oldest barrio \u2014 that seem to be the most prolific. <\/span>
\nTaken in the \u201880s, just after he left school \u2014 and currently on display at <\/span>Galerie Bene Taschen<\/span><\/a> in Cologne \u2014 Rodriguez\u2019s arresting images of this nucleus of Latino culture were the product of a five-year homecoming for the photographer. Spanish Harlem played a pivotal role in Rodriguez\u2019s formative years: it was the site of his uncle\u2019s candy store, as well as many a fond childhood memory shared with his cousin. \u201cWe went there for the music and the girls,\u201d he remembers. \u201cWe\u2019d hang out and eat food and just be New York City teenagers, you know?\u201d But for all its fruitful offerings \u2014 the salsa, the hip hop, the picante cuisine \u2014 the trials of life in Spanish Harlem were glaringly obvious and frequently documented in the media, albeit in an exaggerated manner. \u201cIt was always written about in the same way,\u201d Rodriguez explains, \u201cand these articles tainted people\u2019s view of it.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\" Bible Class<\/em>, 1987<\/p>\n

The overarching picture of the district commonly known as <\/span>El Barrio<\/span><\/i> was one of crime, violence and drugs, fuelled by the sweeping generalisations of journalists at the time; even a later press release for Rodriguez\u2019s earlier photobook of the series talks of the \u201cplague of addiction\u201d and \u201cravages of poverty\u201d that apparently characterised Spanish Harlem back then. It\u2019s this kind of sensationalised language that contributes to the sense of othering and ultimately marginalisation that Rodriguez desperately sought to subvert. \u201cI wanted to use the camera to show that there was much much more,\u201d he explains. The resulting images are a back-to-the-roots exploration of the district and a lesson in the bonafide power of owning your own story. \u201cI\u2019m Puerto Rican,\u201d Rodriguez explains, \u201cso I understood their food, their religion, the struggles with poverty, the sense of family.\u201d<\/span>
\nThis stark intimacy shines through in Rodriguez\u2019s photographs, a closeness that clearly stems from the time and genuine care he has invested in Spanish Harlem and its communities. \u201cI spent a lot of time sitting with the families at their kitchen tables, doing homework with their children, going to the grocery store\u2026\u201d Rodriguez remembers. \u201cIt was five years of photographing \u2014 not five days, not five weeks \u2014 so you build relationships with people.\u201d Its thanks to these off-camera moments that the stereotypes surrounding Spanish Harlem give way to a sense of hope, family, strength and unity; through images like <\/span>Cindy, <\/span><\/i>in which an endearingly gap-toothed girl with an ice lolly grins contagiously at the camera, Rodriguez resets the balance. \u201cThese are our school teachers, our factory workers, our taxi drivers, you know \u2014 it\u2019s a working class community, it\u2019s not just a bunch of people on the dole.\u201d This is something Rodriguez\u2019s photographs constantly reassert \u2014 that humans are a product of their own experience, their society, their culture and education. It\u2019s a key facet of his oeuvre, appealing to our humanist core and exposing the real people behind their demonised tabloid existence. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\" Cindy<\/em>, 1988<\/p>\n

Of course Rodriguez photographs touch upon the darker side of existence too, an inevitability and, moreover, moral obligation of a photographer so subservient to the humanist cause. <\/span>Dwayne Smoking Crack, <\/span><\/i>for example, captures the harrowing normalcy of drugs on the street. The poverty and hardship is subtle, but prevalent in domestic images taken in family homes, but his photographs, more than anything, demonstrate hope, and strength as kids play in the street and families gather round the table to play cards. <\/span>
\nIt\u2019s been over three decades since Rodriguez first lensed the communities in Spanish Harlem, but the images still speak volumes. \u201cWe\u2019re still dealing with the same issues,\u201d he asserts. \u201cIf you\u2019re brown or black in America you\u2019ve got to work five times as hard as any white person. Gentrification is running rampant up there.\u201d It\u2019s unfortunate that the enduring resonance of such depictions boils down to history repeating itself, but it\u2019s this that motivates Rodriguez to keep taking pictures, because people have a dire need to look back and learn from the past. \u201cAll I\u2019m trying to do is give the \u2018other\u2019 a voice. I\u2019m not naive, I know I can\u2019t change the world, but through my photography I have a platform.\u201d<\/span>
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\nSpanish Harlem by Joseph Rodriguez<\/i><\/a> is at\u00a0Galerie Bene Taschen<\/a> in Cologne until 21st July. The photobook of the works, published by powerHouse Books, is available online.<\/i><\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To coincide with his exhibition at Cologne’s Galerie Bene Taschen, we catch up with Joseph Rodriguez to discover more about his poignant ’80s snapshots of El Barrio.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65654,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11856,139],"tags":[2374,1853,10624,10625,3881,2949,154,10626,10627],"class_list":["post-65635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sleek-art","category-art","tag-brooklyn","tag-cologne","tag-el-barrio","tag-galerie-bene-taschen","tag-joseph-rodriguez","tag-nyc","tag-photography","tag-social-documentary","tag-spanish-harlem"],"acf":{"main_category":null,"legacy":"1","exclude_from_ads":null,"hero_title":null,"subtitle":null,"hero":null,"teasers":null,"facebook_image":null,"related_articles":null,"next_article":null,"sleek_card_focus":null,"content":null},"yoast_head":"\nThese Candid Photographs of Spanish Harlem Reveal the People at Its Heart These Candid Photographs of Spanish Harlem Reveal the People at Its Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"To coincide with his current exhibition, we catch up with Joseph Rodriguez to discover more about his poignant '80s snapshots of El Barrio.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/joseph-rodriguez-spanish-harlem\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"These Candid Photographs of Spanish Harlem Reveal the People at Its Heart These Candid Photographs of Spanish Harlem Reveal the People at Its Heart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"To coincide with his current exhibition, we catch up with Joseph Rodriguez to discover more about his poignant '80s snapshots of El Barrio.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/joseph-rodriguez-spanish-harlem\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sleek Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sleekmag\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-05-24T16:58:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sleekmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sleekmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Verfasst von\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"sleek\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Gesch\u00e4tzte Lesezeit\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5\u00a0Minuten\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/\",\"name\":\"Sleek Magazine\",\"description\":\"Sleek is Germany\u2019s leading independent media house\/brand for creativity and innovation located in Berlin the creative capital of the world. 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