I interviewed photographer Camilo Jose Vergara in early 2007 for this brief piece in XLR8R magazine. In light of my recent post about his Harlem 1970-2009 exhibition, I thought I would post the interview I did with him then in its entirety.

What is it about American cities that draws you to document them versus, say, ghettos in other places like your native Chile?
Here is where I live. I can’t just take the bus and go to Mexico. After a while you become interested in what’s around you. India is fascinating but it’s do damn far. What can you start there? First of all, you have to learn the language. Here at least, with some trouble I understand what folks are telling me. There are some places, like parts of Chicago, where it’s almost like a foreign language but you still can understand. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week I took the woman (semi-)uptown and caught Harlem 1970-2009, an exhibition of work by my favorite photographer, Camilo Jose Vergara, at the New York Historical Society. You’ll never hear your trendy art friends mention his name, but Vergara, a 65-year-old Chile native who’s worked out of Harlem since the ’70s, is doing some of the most unique and valuable work of any visual artist working today. Returning to the same sites in troubled urban (”ghetto”) areas year after year, Vergara documents their decline, decay, rebirth, further decay, whatever. The story told by his Harlem photos is more complex than that, as his recent images of the area document not only gentrification but pockets of remaining poverty and decay as well as the clearance of vibrant (if damaged) areas in the name of progress. Read the rest of this entry »