Ebook346 pages1 hour
Harlem: The Unmaking of a Ghetto
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
5/5
()
About this ebook
For more than a century, Harlem has been the epicenter of black America, the celebrated heart of African American life and culture—but it has also been a byword for the problems that have long plagued inner-city neighborhoods: poverty, crime, violence, disinvestment, and decay.
Photographer Camilo José Vergara has been chronicling the neighborhood for forty-three years, and Harlem: The Unmaking of a Ghetto is an unprecedented record of urban change. Vergara began his documentation of Harlem in the tradition of such masters as Helen Levitt and Aaron Siskind, and he later turned his focus on the neighborhood’s urban fabric, both the buildings that compose it and the life and culture embedded in them. By repeatedly returning to the same locations over the course of decades, Vergara is able to show us a community that is constantly changing—some areas declining, as longtime businesses give way to empty storefronts, graffiti, and garbage, while other areas gentrify, with corporate chain stores coming in to compete with the mom-and-pops. He also captures the ever-present street life of this densely populated neighborhood, from stoop gatherings to graffiti murals memorializing dead rappers to impersonators honoring Michael Jackson in front of the Apollo, as well as the growth of tourism and racial integration.
Woven throughout the images is Vergara’s own account of his project and his experience of living and working in Harlem. Taken together, his unforgettable words and images tell the story of how Harlem and its residents navigated the segregation, dereliction and slow recovery of the closing years of the twentieth century and the boom and racial integration of the twenty-first century. A deeply personal investigation, Harlem will take its place with the best portrayals of urban life.
Photographer Camilo José Vergara has been chronicling the neighborhood for forty-three years, and Harlem: The Unmaking of a Ghetto is an unprecedented record of urban change. Vergara began his documentation of Harlem in the tradition of such masters as Helen Levitt and Aaron Siskind, and he later turned his focus on the neighborhood’s urban fabric, both the buildings that compose it and the life and culture embedded in them. By repeatedly returning to the same locations over the course of decades, Vergara is able to show us a community that is constantly changing—some areas declining, as longtime businesses give way to empty storefronts, graffiti, and garbage, while other areas gentrify, with corporate chain stores coming in to compete with the mom-and-pops. He also captures the ever-present street life of this densely populated neighborhood, from stoop gatherings to graffiti murals memorializing dead rappers to impersonators honoring Michael Jackson in front of the Apollo, as well as the growth of tourism and racial integration.
Woven throughout the images is Vergara’s own account of his project and his experience of living and working in Harlem. Taken together, his unforgettable words and images tell the story of how Harlem and its residents navigated the segregation, dereliction and slow recovery of the closing years of the twentieth century and the boom and racial integration of the twenty-first century. A deeply personal investigation, Harlem will take its place with the best portrayals of urban life.
Related to Harlem
Related ebooks
Slumming: Sexual and Racial Encounters in American Nightlife, 1885-1940 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Building a Market: The Rise of the Home Improvement Industry, 1914–1960 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBuilding the Urban Environment: Visions of the Organic City in the United States, Europe, and Latin America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChicago: A Biography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Radical Cities: Across Latin America in Search of a New Architecture Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPurging the Poorest: Public Housing and the Design Politics of Twice-Cleared Communities Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRevolt of the Provinces: The Regionalist Movement in America, 1920-1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Flash Press: Sporting Male Weeklies in 1840s New York Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Making the Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago, 1940-1960 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Third City: Chicago and American Urbanism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChicago Artist Colonies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChicago Made: Factory Networks in the Industrial Metropolis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJazz Age Chicago: Crucible of Modern America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDingbat 2.0: The Iconic Los Angeles Apartment as Projection of a Metropolis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIconoclasm Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlueprint for Disaster: The Unraveling of Chicago Public Housing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chicago's Mansions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMonumental Lies: Culture Wars and the Truth about the Past Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlack Chicago: The Making of a Negro Ghetto, 1890-1920 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5African American Urban History since World War II Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Chicago on the Make: Power and Inequality in a Modern City Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDesigns of Destruction: The Making of Monuments in the Twentieth Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Nation of Neighborhoods: Imagining Cities, Communities, and Democracy in Postwar America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEvangelical Gotham: Religion and the Making of New York City, 1783-1860 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOld New York in Early Photographs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In the Watches of the Night: Life in the Nocturnal City, 1820–1930 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Signs of the Americas: A Poetics of Pictography, Hieroglyphs, and Khipu Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe City at Its Limits: Taboo, Transgression, and Urban Renewal in Lima Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPrisoners of History: What Monuments to World War II Tell Us About Our History and Ourselves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lofts of SoHo: Gentrification, Art, and Industry in New York, 1950–1980 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Photography For You
Extreme Art Nudes: Artistic Erotic Photo Essays Far Outside of the Boudoir Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Photography Exercise Book: Training Your Eye to Shoot Like a Pro (250+ color photographs make it come to life) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe iPhone Photography Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Book Of Legs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Betty Page Confidential: Featuring Never-Before Seen Photographs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Photographer's Guide to Posing: Techniques to Flatter Everyone Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Collins Complete Photography Course Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Photography 101: The Digital Photography Guide for Beginners Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bombshells: Glamour Girls of a Lifetime Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Complete Portrait Manual: 200+ Tips & Techniques for Shooting the Perfect Photos of People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Advancing Your Photography: Secrets to Making Photographs that You and Others Will Love Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Photography for Beginners: The Ultimate Photography Guide for Mastering DSLR Photography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Street Photography: The Art of Capturing the Candid Moment Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Photography Bible: A Complete Guide for the 21st Century Photographer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Digital Photography For Dummies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Conscious Creativity: Look, Connect, Create Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Historic Photos of North Carolina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRocks and Minerals of The World: Geology for Kids - Minerology and Sedimentology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ballet for Everybody: The Basics of Ballet for Beginners of all Ages Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cinematography: Third Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Humans of New York Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Humans of New York: Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Workin' It!: RuPaul's Guide to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Style Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Photography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unflattering Photos of Fascists: Authoritarianism in Trump's America Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Power to the People: The World of the Black Panthers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Humans Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Patterns in Nature: Why the Natural World Looks the Way It Does Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Declutter Your Photo Life: Curating, Preserving, Organizing, and Sharing Your Photos Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Reviews for Harlem
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
5/5
1 rating0 reviews
Book preview
Harlem - Camilo José Vergara
Enjoying the preview?
Page 1 of 1