Tracking Time and Change

Online Gallery of Down These Mean Streets: Community and Place in Urban Photography

Online Gallery for Down These Mean Streets: Community and Place in Urban Photography
Camilo José Vergara, 65 East 125th Street, Harlem, 1977, inkjet print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center, 2015.44.1, © 1977, Camilo José Vergara
65 East 125th Street, Harlem
Artist
Date1977
inkjet print
Not on view
Camilo José Vergara, 65 East 125th Street, Harlem, 1980, inkjet print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center, 2015.44.3, © 1980, Camilo José Vergara
65 East 125th Street, Harlem
Artist
Date1980
inkjet print
Not on view
Camilo José Vergara, 65 East 125th Street, Harlem, 1994, inkjet print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center, 2015.44.10, © 1994, Camilo José Vergara
65 East 125th Street, Harlem
Artist
Date1994
inkjet print
Not on view
Camilo José Vergara, 65 East 125th Street, Harlem, 2001, inkjet print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center, 2015.44.17, © 2001, Camilo José Vergara
65 East 125th Street, Harlem
Artist
Date2001
inkjet print
Not on view
Camilo José Vergara, Lower East Side music shop, from the series Old New York, 1970, inkjet print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 2015.55.1, © 1970, Camilo José Vergara
Lower East Side music shop, from the series Old New York
Artist
Date1970
inkjet print
Not on view
Camilo José Vergara, Militant display, Window, Bushwick, Brooklyn, from the series Old New York, 1970, inkjet print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 2015.55.3, © 1970, Camilo José Vergara
Militant display, Window, Bushwick, Brooklyn, from the…
Artist
Date1970
inkjet print
Not on view
Camilo José Vergara, Lower East Side, Manhattan, from the series Old New York, 1970, inkjet print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 2015.55.2, © 1970, Camilo José Vergara
Lower East Side, Manhattan, from the series Old New York
Artist
Date1970
inkjet print
Not on view
Camilo José Vergara, Puerto Rican Wedding, East Harlem, from the series Old New York, 1970, inkjet print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 2015.55.4
Puerto Rican Wedding, East Harlem, from the series Old New…
Artist
Date1970
inkjet print
Not on view

Since the early 1970s, Camilo José Vergara has chronicled the shifting fate of urban communities across the United States. As an immigrant settling in New York, he was first drawn to neighborhoods that were transitioning into Latino enclaves. He later adopted a time-lapse approach, photographing the same site year after year. Vergara used color photography to emphasize the grittiness of the streets and history embedded in public spaces. 65 East 125th Street, Harlem focuses on a store front that was once the Purple Manor, a thriving jazz venue in this historic African American neighborhood. The series shows the slow erosion of the past and the resourcefulness of residents and business owners during periods of economic decline. This ongoing series now tracks how gentrification and globalization are changing Harlem.