“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. ”
– Camilo José Vergara
Since 1980, Chilean-born photographer Camilo José Vergara has been marking the changes at 178th St Vyse Ave in New York City’s South Bronx.
He’s been recording the country’s evolution over four decades, focusing on poor and segregated communities in urban America, of which the south Bronx is one.
Camilo photographs the exact same place year after year, chronicling dereliction in Los Angeles, Chicago, Newark, Camden (New Jersey), New York and Detroit, becoming “an archivist of decline”. For consistency, he uses equivalent cameras and lenses so the images can be compared. In this album we see life on 178th St at Vyse Ave, South Bronx, NYC. The story begins (above) with a picture of families living at the address in the 64 apartments housed in a large, castle-like building…