125th Street Photography in Harlem
An unprecedented study of Harlem’s 125th Street photography and cultural identity, edited by Antonella Pelizzari and Arden Sherman.
Harlem’s 125th Street is a marker of twentieth-century urban experience, a thoroughfare that encapsulates powerful stories of business and consumption, real estate and gentrification, glamour and entertainment, and political uprising. This book explores the constant mutation of this street life through the works of a large roster of photographers and performance artists.
The photographs in this book represent narratives of resilience and stories of survival against a rapid and sweeping movement of history across 125th Street, where buildings and communities are periodically destroyed and built anew. The works shape a sense of belonging and identity that goes against the stereotyping and mystification of this neighborhood. It contributes to the writing of a new history of photography that is collective and collaborative.
Featuring artists: Berenice Abbott, Alice Attie, Khalik Allah, Dawoud Bey, Kwame Brathwaite, Isaac Diggs & Edward Hillel, Lola Flash, Hiram Maristany, Ozier Muhammad, Katsu Naito, Marilyn Nance, Ruben Natal-San Miguel, Lorraine O’Grady, Gordon Parks, Pope. L, Jamel Shabazz, Coreen Simpson, Beuford Smith, Ming Smith, Morgan and Marvin Smith, Shawn Walker, Hai Zhang, and so many more.
The Book Launch will be next September 14, 2022, at HUNTER EAST HARLEM GALLERY.
About the Authors
Antonella Pelizzari teaches courses in the History of Photography at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY. Her expertise covers a wide range of subjects and time periods, including Italian photography and culture from its beginnings to the present, nineteenth-century British colonialism, American modernism, and the interdisciplinary dialogue between photography and architecture. She earned her PhD from the University of New Mexico. She has been Associate Curator of Photography at the Canadian Center for Architecture in Montreal, and she has held teaching positions at Concordia University in Montreal and Ryerson University in Toronto.
Arden Sherman is a curator, organizer, and designer. She is currently Director & Curator of Hunter East Harlem Gallery, a multi-disciplinary space for art exhibitions and socially-minded projects located at Hunter College in New York City. Her specializations are socially-engaged art, community work, and photography. Arden has years of experience in non-profit and university settings and has held positions at Creative Time, Loyola Marymount University Gallery, Pratt Institute, as well as Prospect New Orleans and Headlands Center for the Arts.
