“I am a builder of virtual cities. I think of my images as bricks that, when placed next to each other, reveal shapes and meanings of neglected urban communities.”
Txt.- Camilo José Vergara
Residente en Estados Unidos desde hace décadas, su trabajo ha sido siempre silencioso y así ha ocurrido en esta ocasión con el premio (la Medalla Nacional de Humanidades / National Humanities Medal) otorgado por Barack Obama (apenas referenciado en los medios clásicos). Cuando daba clases en Barcelona pude exponer el trabajo de este fotógrafo chileno en numerosas ocasiones, conocí su trabajo gracias a una exposición del museo MACBA de Barcelona que le dedicó una retrospectiva bajo el título “The New American Ghetto.” y aunque en Madrid no era muy conocido en Alcalá descubrí que Daniel Zarza era amigo lo que facilitó que pudiésemos invitarle en dos ocasiones.
En persona Vergara no defraude, habla pausadamente como si intentase no olvidar su lengua materna, el español, y habla de su increible trabajo con la naturalidad de quien lleva cuatro décadas convencido del valor de su trabajo. Fue el primero en acercarse a Detroit, tras él visitaron otros muchos la ciudad, buscando las ruinas de nuestra contemporaneidad, pero ninguno ha dedicado tanto tiempo y pasión a la realización de sus brillantes y sorprendentes fotografías. Camilo José Vergara tiene una web muy recomendable, con una interesante selección de más de 2.500 imágenes, donde se puede leer una declaración de intenciones sobre el trabajo.
Txt.- José Juan Barba
“For more than four decades I have devoted myself to photographing and documenting the poorest and most segregated communities in urban America. I feel that a people’s past, including their accomplishments, aspirations and failures, are reflected less in the faces of those who live in these neighborhoods than in the material, built environment in which they move and modify over time. Photography for me is a tool for continuously asking questions, for understanding the spirit of a place, and, as I have discovered over time, for loving and appreciating cities.
My focus is on established East Coast cities such as New York, Newark and Camden; rust belt cities of the Midwest such as Detroit and Chicago; and Los Angeles and Richmond, California. I have photographed urban America systematically, frequently returning to re-photograph these cities over time. Along the way I became a historically conscious documentarian, an archivist of decline, a photographer of walls, buildings, and city blocks. Bricks, signs, trees, and sidewalks have spoken to me the most truthfully and eloquently about urban reality.
I did not want to limit the scope of my documentation to places and scenes that captured my interest merely because they immediately resonated with my personality. In my struggle to make as complete and objective a portrait of American inner cities as I could, I developed a method to document entire neighborhoods and then return year after year to re-photograph the same places over time and from different heights, blanketing entire communities with images. Studying my growing archive, I discover fragments of stories and urban themes in need of definition and further exploration. Wishing to keep the documentation open, I include places such as empty lots, which as segments of a sequence become revealing. I observe photographic sequences to discover how places evolve, and to formulate questions. I write down observations, interview residents and scholars, and make comparisons with similar photographs I had taken in other cities. Photographs taken from different levels and angles, with perspective-corrected lenses, form a dense web of images, a visual record of these neighborhoods over time.”
Txt.- Camilo José Vergara
![Aínda sen título. Carta Blanca [#3] a Narelle Jubelin. (Elena Asins · Narelle Jubelin · Anna Turbau). Fotografías por Roi Alonso, cortesía de Galería Nordés](/sites/default/files/styles/mopis_home_news_category_slider_desktop/public/lead-images/metalocus_narelle-jubellin_carta-aberta_22_2p.webp?h=3b4e7bc7&itok=ALbdeJ3O "Aínda sen título. Carta Blanca [#3] a Narelle Jubelin. (Elena Asins · Narelle Jubelin · Anna Turbau). Fotografías por Roi Alonso, cortesía de Galería Nordés")
