Untitled (Boy in front of condemned building, East New York)

Frank Espada, Untitled (Boy in front of condemned building, East New York), ca. 1960-1964, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center, 2015.22.3, © Frank Espada Photography
Copied Frank Espada, Untitled (Boy in front of condemned building, East New York), ca. 1960-1964, gelatin silver print, image: 9 × 13 3⁄8 in. (22.9 × 34.0 cm) sheet: 11 × 14 in. (27.9 × 35.6 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center, 2015.22.3, © Frank Espada Photography

Artwork Details

Title
Untitled (Boy in front of condemned building, East New York)
Artist
Date
ca. 1960-1964
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
image: 9 × 13 3⁄8 in. (22.9 × 34.0 cm) sheet: 11 × 14 in. (27.9 × 35.6 cm)
Copyright
© Frank Espada Photography
Credit Line
Museum purchase through the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center
Mediums Description
gelatin silver print
Classifications
Subjects
  • Cityscape — New York — New York
  • Cityscape — street
  • Figure male — child — full length
  • Architecture Exterior
Object Number
2015.22.3
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2015.22.3

Artwork Description

Frank Espada probably focused his lens on abandoned buildings because they were directly related to his activism. In the early 1960s, he founded East New York Action, a grassroots organization that fought for better housing conditions in the neighborhood where Espada lived with his young family. Like the South Bronx, East New York was peppered with abandoned buildings, many vacated due to both accidental fires and arson. His photographs highlight the un-reconcilable: the beauty of young children in these harsh surroundings.

Down These Mean Streets: Community and Place in Urban Photography, 2017
Description in Spanish

Es probable que Frank Espada enfocase su lente en la dirección de edificios abandonados debido à la relación directa que tenían con su activismo. A comienzos de los años 60, Espada fundó la East New York Action, una organización comunitaria que luchaba por mejorar las condiciones de las viviendas en el barrio donde residía con su joven familia. Al igual que en el sur del Bronx, en el vecindario de East New York se encontraban varios edificios abandonados, en muchos casos debido a incendios accidentales o intencionales. Sus fotografías ponen de relieve lo irreconciliable: la belleza de los niños que viven en estos ambientes inhóspitos.

Por estas calles bravas: Comunidad y lugar en la fotografía urbana, 2017

Exhibitions

Photograph of children playing in the water from a fire hydrant by Hiram Maristany
Down These Mean Streets: Community and Place in Urban Photography
May 11, 2017–August 5, 2017
Smithsonian American Art Museum
America’s urban streets have long inspired documentary photographers. After World War II, populations shifted from the city to the suburbs and newly built highways cut through thriving neighborhoods, leaving isolated pockets within major urban centers.