The Street Becomes at The National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Staking Claim: Latinx Art and US American Experiences Wyeth Foundation for American Art Symposium

The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts

National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Session I: Latinx Art and Empire

A brilliant panel convened today at the National Gallery, moderated by Evelyn Carmen Ramos and featuring presentations by Terezita Romo, Taína Caragol and Kency Cornejo. I was incredibly moved by the power of the artworks referenced and by the minds and visions of the panelists. Taína focused on the themes of non-sovereignty, US militarism and the racialization of migrants and highlighted the importance of the years 1898 and 1904 to Latinx art history. Her presentation featured works by Antonio Martorell, Miguel Luciano, Juan Sanchez and my own series "The Street Becomes".

I attended the symposium online. The 10:30AM start time in DC translated into my 12:30AM in Seoul. But it was absolutely worth staying up for this.

Estas son las mañanitas

La vida es un largo aprendizaje, adentro y afuera del aula. En el transcurso de nuestros días, nos aguardan todo tipo de lecciones, algunas dulces y otras duras y amargas.

Quizás la más difícil de ellas sea aprender a dejar atrás la vanidad, la ambición, el egoismo y entregarnos al amor.

Cuando llegaron Luca y Olin comprendí por primera vez lo que sintieron mis padres al nacer yo: su emoción, su regocijo, su ansiedad, su devoción incansable.

Y por eso, cada cumpleaños desde entonces se lo dedico a ellos. A mi mamá que ya no está con nosotros y a mi papá que sigue sin comprender para que sirve un mundo sin ella.

Coming from a tropical country

Coming from a tropical country, it’s a bit counter intuitive but nonetheless true: I love bicycling when the Han river freezes in winter.

The roads are almost empty of other cyclists and pedestrians. And there’s a stillness and silence which are the perfect foil for the rush of speed on the bike.

I left the house at 10 and came back at 3. Five hours on the road made me feel ten years younger.

Luca, the little stock manager

Meet our little stock manager Luca. This morning he informed us how many individual yogurts we had left, which flavors and also how many lemons and apples where still in the fruit crisper. He also found a half drunk milk carton. He remembered two days ago Olin saved half his milk for Mami to have later.

He took it out and gave it to her.

About a year ago, Luca started going through the recycling bin and examining the contents. He might pick up an ice cream bar wrapper, glance up and casually ask “Who had ice cream last night after we went to sleep?”

Don’t try to hide any goodies from Luca.

He knows. Everything.

📸 Hye-Ryoung Min

New workshop in Cuba!

It’s been a few years since I was able to return to Cuba. So I’ll be daydreaming from now until March, when I will be a guest instructor for Cuba Workshops along with my great friend and talented colleague Alex Garcia.

The workshop is meant for photographers at all levels and runs from March 3-11. We will spend time in both Havana and Trinidad.

Join us for an unforgettable journey!

More information here.

The Reference

A recent transplant to Seoul, I am eager to learn about my new hometown’s growth and evolution across the decades. And naturally, I am particularly interested in the photographic representation of that history.

Yesterday, HRM and I were fortunate to spend time with Jeong Eun Kim, Director of The Reference bookstore. Jeong Eun also runs her own publishing imprint IANN, which has focused editorially on the great documentarians of Korean life in the mid 20th Century.

We shared an afternoon of conversation that opened up entire new vistas and left us deeply inspired and energized.

It’s a good day - a great day - when you find a kindred spirit.

Amanecer

When I opened my eyes this morning, I found Luca asleep next to me. All the fears, doubts and second guessing that daily run through my mind and burden my heart dissipated and left me with one shinning truth: fatherhood is the most beautiful gift life has ever given me.

And I will continue to do everything I possibly can to protect, educate, entertain, inspire and care for these boys. To deserve the joy they’ve brought to me.

Alma Mater

After completing high school in Guatemala, I enrolled at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where I studied Psychology and English Literature. My next move was to relocate to NYC to attend the School of Visual Arts’ MFA in Photography and Related Media. I graduated in 1994 and began assisting and printing books and exhibitions for photographers I deeply admired. Fifteen years went by. My artistic practice became well established. In 2008, I returned to SVA once again; this time as a student in the Masters in Digital Photography Program, where I would go on to serve as Faculty for ten incredible years.

All this goes to saying that I cherish my long history with my Alma Mater. And I will forever be in the debt of incredible teachers and mentors like Charlie Traub, Marvin Heiferman, Katrin Eismann and Tom Ashe.

But without a doubt, it was meeting HRM when we were both students in Digital Photo that really changed my life forever. A true SVA love story.

This is why yesterday we felt so elated celebrating the 75th Anniversary of SVA’s foundation with a remarkable group of fellow grads in Seoul, Korea.

Korean me

Night out with artist friends. I look more than a bit Korean in this quick sketch by Wongeun Kim :)

La barba un poco lampiña, los ojos más rasgados y la nariz más ancha me quedan bien?

Textbook

In many ways, our recent trip to NYC was a textbook example of how not to visit the city: we didn’t attend any of the art and culture venues, we didn’t indulge in any of our favorite restaurants, don’t even mention shopping for new threads or staying out late nights listening to music and sipping whiskey.

But what we did manage to do was remedy an omission in our lives. We made the city Luca and Olin were born in - but had only read about in books during the long Covid sheltering - come alive before their eyes. They gaped at the Empire State Building towering over us, squinted their eyes at the sun glancing off the silver pinnacle of the Chrysler, saluted Lady Liberty as we sailed past on the Staten Island Ferry, climbed the stairs of the New York Public Library, crossed the Brooklyn Bridge in a yellow cab and lined up on the street for the freshest bagels on a chilly October morning.

Was it all a dream?

Was it all a dream?

Homecoming

Olin outside the New York Public Library.

Being New York toddlers in the time of Covid, he had only read about it in books until this trip.

Walking into that magnificent temple of knowledge, I told the twins about how a very pregnant HRM and I spent hours in those reading rooms doing research and compiling lists of possible names for them.

To me, this visit to the NYPL felt like a true homecoming.

Goseong

Goseong Choi has a new and remarkable exhibition of photography and video “Inhale, Exhale and the Space in Between” at Art Space Eonju Round in Seoul.

The works are a stirring meditation on the nature of confinement: the tides of desire, solitude, yearning, fear and hope that break over our souls. In a darkened room, the story is told by the subtle changes of light playing on human skin, the shifting skies outside the window and the cryptic oracle of fortune telling beads.

Neither my words - nor my photographs of the installation - could do the work justice. But here’s a portrait of Goseong taken today at the gallery.

In Memoriam: William Klein

Is there such a thing as photography without William Klein? Hard to fathom… as it always is when we loose one of the greats.

I had the pleasure of hearing him speak on a Sunday night at SVA some seven years ago. What a great artist and raconteur he was. I remember thinking: I wish we could continue this conversation in a bar somewhere and sip whiskey all night.

Rest in peace, maestro 💐

Amor, quizás

Itaewon

A portrait of me by my wife, Hye-Ryoung Min.

Bright, shiny day

밝고 빛나는 날

Abracadabra!

Olmedini left me a message today saying how he would like to come and visit me in Korea. Not this year, but next year when Luca and Olin turn five. So that he could entertain them and their friends with a magic show.

Never mind that he earns a living performing in the subway and money is always scarce; a round trip air ticket to Korea would mean a small fortune to him.

When he calls he never fails to ask about them. In fact it’s how our conversations always begin. And he knows their birthday by heart, and keeps track of their progress and education.

Like family.

Like a four-year-old

That’s me today, celebrating Photolucida’s Critical Mass, four-year-old style.

But I’ll be breaking out some good bourbon later tonight, once we put the twins to bed.

Finalist, Photolucida Critical Mass

I’m honored to be a Finalist in this year’s edition of @photolucida Critical Mass for my series “Olmedini el Mago”. And proud to be listed alongside some dear friends and admired colleagues.