Camilo José Vergara and "Harlem: The Unmaking of a Ghetto"

[caption id="attachment_1108" align="alignright" width="264" caption="Beginning in 1977, Vergara began photographing 65 East 125th Street in New York City's Harlem neighborhood. From top, the address as photographed in 1980, 2001 and 2007 illustrate both the city's revitalization and the loss of local color."][/caption]

Last Thursday, the American Studies Department and the University Seminar in Urban Studies hosted photographer and historian Camilo José Vergara to present “Harlem: The Unmaking of a Ghetto.” Vergara has spent years utilizing his training in sociology to document urban areas such as Harlem, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Frank Goodyear, a curator at the National Portrait Gallery, introduced Vergara by commenting on how his viewing of the physical deterioration of urban areas has helped to bring meaning to the inequality in urban America. He presented the photographs he has taken of Harlem over the years, comparing buildings and areas to show how much things have changed.

Perhaps the most telling example of this was when Vergara, showing a picture of a piece of Harlem architecture that can no longer be found, said, “You seem them everywhere, and then they disappear, and then there’s no trace of them except in pictures.” Yet he made it clear that Harlem is a place that has turned around, and is not what it once was in terms of drugs, poverty, and violence. He stated that of all the boroughs of New York, he has found that Harlem has the highest level of recognition around the world. And as a result of Vergara’s work, the GW community now knows that much more about Harlem and its culture.

- Jenn Neuner

(photo from popphoto.com)