Home Blessing, Morrisania, Bronx 2012
Photo by David Gonzalez
The Bronx-born Seis del Sur “Barrios” photo exhibit is on a virtual tour, and it grows even more beautiful as it moves down south in the city.
It began in the Bronx at the Bronx Documentary Center, formed by six Puerto Rican photographers either born in the Bronx or firmly focused on it.
But now it’s at King Juan Carlos 1 of Spain Center, a part of NYU at 53 Washington Square South in Manhattan. It’s Seis del Sur’s biggest show and its most stunning and moving with both current photos from New York, Puerto Rico, Cuba and Haiti, and those that highlight both Bronxites’ beauty and their severe struggles in the 1970s and 80s.
For Bronx residents, activists, students and more (and yes, Manhattanites and others who walk around down there every day) it’s a must-see exhibit linking the lives and focus of the six photographers — Joe Conzo, Ricky Flores, Edwin Pagan, David Gonzalez, Angel Franco and Francisco Molina Reyes II —who are now virtual Bronx bros.
“It is fitting that Seis del Sur brings the Bronx downtown, and finds its home here at NYU, in a university space that is a stone’s throw from another important and intense Latino community on the Lower East Side,” writes Ana Dopico, the Center’s director, in the brochure. “Their work inspires us and educates us. And reminds us that we are at the heart of a Latino city, whose communities continue to shape the future and the mission of artists, photographers, scholars, and universities.”
A crowded Bronx photographer and fan crew at NYU in October. Photo by Jordan Moss
The highlight of the opening was the gathering of Bronx photographers, artists and activists way downtown. But it’s a show for everyone who loves good photography and its portrayal of the world around and beyond us all. The exhibit is open through January. Bronxites, it’s worth the trip.
Mr. Palladium, 52 Park, Bronx, 2013
Photo by David Gonzalez
Bronx Matters 
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