B. NEWARK, NJ, 1964; LIVES IN THE BRONX , NY
Multidisciplinary artist Manuel Acevedo has been photographing the densely populated urban streets of his hometown communities in Newark and the Bronx for thirty-five years. His artwork includes site-specific installations and public art projects, along with drawings and photographs. His black-and-white documentary photographs capture the richness of neighborhood life and lore, while also addressing the complex political issues of gentrification, immigration, segregation, race, policing, and contested histories.
At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019, Acevedo photographed in the Bronx, one of the hardest-hit communities in the country. His pictures show everyday trauma in his neighborhood: masked pedestrians with cautious body language, boarded up businesses tagged with graffiti, and Black Lives Matter protests marked by social distancing and surveillance. The pandemic also provided Acevedo with an opportunity to revisit his early street photography. He used the CPW dark rooms in Woodstock to reprint his first sustained photo series, “The Wards of Newark” (1982–87), begun when he was only eighteen years old. These 40-year-old images depicting the everyday joys and struggles on the city streets of Newark are exhibited here for the first time in years and they remain timely and socially relevant.
This installation is part of the exhibition Parallel Lives: Photography, Identity, and Belonging, curated by Maya Benton. Parallel Lives draws attention to complex notions of community and belonging, and in particular how our social and familial relationships have been reimagined as a result of the conditions of isolation and uncertainty imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Photo: Manuel Acevedo, Embrace, 1986