Featuring: Alejandro Olivas-Castillo, Carolina Jimenez, Cesar Florencio, Francely Flores, Francesca Stolcke, Itzel Alejandra Martinez, Monica Patten, Shaira Chaer
A Great Day in Ñiu Yor (AGDÑY) is a photography community project amplifying the voices, achievements, and collective presence of Latine and Indigenous artists, leaders, and change-makers in New York City. Inspired by Art Kane and Gordon Parks’s iconic collective portraits A Great Day in Harlem and A Great Day in Hip Hop, this project moves beyond traditional portraiture to construct a layered, living narrative of community resilience, cultural expression, and social transformation.
AGDÑY is led by a collective of 8 NYC-based photographers, each deeply rooted in their communities, who invited participants from their own networks—ensuring the project was built through proximity, care, and lived connection. The resulting body of work is shaped by collective authorship: by the community, for the community.
At its core, AGDÑY is a strategic visual intervention—a deliberate effort to challenge systemic invisibility and reclaim narrative ownership. Participants are not positioned as subjects, but as co-creators within a narrative of cultural empowerment.
The name itself carries dual significance: a homage to Kane and Parks’s iconic portraits and a reflection of how Latine communities naturally pronounce “New York” in English—”ÑIU YOR” making it a celebration of linguistic identity and a living document of visibility, affirmation, and resistance.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Creative Director/Photographer
Alejandro’s story begins in Chihuahua, México—where the desert and the light left a permanent mark on his soul. His family’s move to the US set him on a defining journey through Kansas City and eventually to New York City, a third of his life shaped by each place. It was through his father’s 35mm camera that he discovered his passion for photography, quickly falling in love with the art form.
He dedicates his lens to amplifying voices often overlooked through captivating stills & motion film. His work delves into the raw essence of reality, employing vibrant colors and close-up shots to accentuate the true grit of human nature and the emotions that define it.
For over a decade, Ale has been based in Brooklyn, NY—remaining an “inquieto,” perpetually restless, always eager to immerse himself in a new experience, seeking fresh perspectives and inspirations outside the East Coast.
His work has been featured in Booooooom, Creatura, Photoville, Monad Agency, Perjeus.
Producer/Photographer
Monica Patten is a Peruvian-Irish New Yorker born and raised in the Inwood neighborhood of Uptown NYC. Currently based in Queens, her event and portrait photography explores community, memory, and diasporic identity. Through cultural celebrations, traditional dance, and intimate gatherings, she examines how ritual and togetherness carry stories of ancestry, resilience, and belonging across generations. Her photography holds the tension between preservation and reinvention; asking what we inherit, what we keep, and how we pass legacy forward. Her editorial and commercial clients include Patreon and Irish Repertory Theatre, with exhibition credits at Photoville and the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance (NoMAA).
Producer/Photographer
Francely Flores is an Indigenous (Mixteca & Ngiba) independent photojournalist born in occupied Karankawa land and raised in occupied Lenape land. She focuses on documenting the stories of Indigenous peoples, immigrants, and Bronx residents. She began documenting protests during the summer of 2020. To Francely, this was a way that she could engage and be involved with individuals who also felt the failure of various social structures. Her work aims to support individuals, not solely through documenting them but also by being involved in supporting their demands.
Photographer
Cesar Florencio Cortes is a photographer and filmmaker raised in The Bronx, now studying at the California Institute of The Arts with a full ride scholarship. Of Mexican descent, his visuals strive to represent a sincerity and truth that lies within having Hispanic culture and—more broadly—being human.
Photographer
Carolina Jimenez is a Dominican American visual artist from New York City whose practice utilizes photography and installation to build bridges across time and space. She is interested in the continual shaping and reshaping of memory—how do we choose what to carry with us and what to let go? How do these choices shape the personal and the collective?
Her work has been featured in spaces across New York such as the Bronx Documentary Center, FABNYC, the Andrew Freedman Home, Photoville, and the International Center for Photography.
She is most inspired by the stories, hopes, dreams, and fears of her neighbors, elders, friends, and family.
Photographer / Director
Itzel Alejandra is a Mexican American director & photographer from El Paso, TX currently living and working in Brooklyn, NY.
Through collaborative lifestyle portraits, gifs, and video, she seeks to unravel identity formation, personal aspirations, and the quest of belonging. Itzel has documented the lives and stories of the Latine community+ in New York and Texas working for major media outlets such as NPR, Vice, Elle, and Remezcla. Her work has been featured in Vogue, Forbes, Nylon, and Musée Magazine, and exhibited at Pace Gallery, Greenwich House, and Kates-Ferri Project.
Photographer
Francesca Stolcke is a photographer born and raised in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City, with Ecuadorian and German roots. Working primarily in black-and-white film documentary and street photography, her practice explores identity, community, and human connection, often focusing on the subtle moments that reveal the emotional and psychological depth of everyday life. Stolcke’s work has been exhibited at the Penumbra Foundation, The Holy Art Gallery, and Monad Agency, and featured in Vogue Philippines and Hypebeast. She is an alum of the BRIDGE x ASMP mentorship program and a member of Scope of Work (SOW).
Photographer
Shaira Chaer is a multi-hyphenate creative born and raised on unceded Lenape land in the Bronx, New York to parents from Kiskeya-Ayiti and Al-Sham. A former artist-in-residence at Ankhlave on Governors Island (2025), Chaer’s work and words have been showcased at The Old Stone House, Tafaria Castle & Centre for the Arts in Kenya, Andrew Freedman Home, Bronx Arts Space, Junior High Gallery LA, New Women Space, Hinchas Press, Convergence Magazine, Remezcla, Vibe Magazine, and more.
Organizations
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Photoville
Founded in 2011 in Brooklyn, NY, Photoville was built on the principles of addressing cultural equity and inclusion, which we are always striving for, by ensuring that the artists we exhibit are diverse in gender, class, and race.
In pursuit of its mission, Photoville produces an annual, city-wide open air photography festival in New York City, a wide range of free educational community initiatives, and a nationwide program of public art exhibitions.
By activating public spaces, amplifying visual storytellers, and creating unique and highly innovative exhibition and programming environments, we join the cause of nurturing a new lens of representation.
Through creative partnerships with festivals, city agencies, and other nonprofit organizations, Photoville offers visual storytellers, educators, and students financial support, mentorship, and promotional & production resources, on a range of exhibition opportunities.
For more information about Photoville visit, www.photoville.com
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A Great Day in Ñiu Yor
Developed through sustained collaboration since late 2024, A Great Day in Ñiu Yor (AGDÑY) is an artist-led collective of eight New York City based photographers, each deeply rooted in their communities. Each photographer invited participants from their own networks, ensuring the project was built through proximity, care, and lived connection. The resulting body of work is shaped by collective authorship—by the community, for the community.
A Great Day in Ñiu Yor
Featuring: Various Artists
Supported by:
Locations
View Location Details Download a detailed map of this location Brooklyn Bridge Park – Emily Warren Roebling Plaza1 Water St
Brooklyn, NY 11201
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The views and opinions expressed in this exhibit are those of the exhibition artists and partners and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Photoville or any other participants and partners of the Photoville Festival.
Executive Producer: Matria Rentals
Producers: Francely Flores & Monica Patten
Special thanks: Djali Brown-Cepeda, Stalin Llivichuzhca, David Michael Alexander, Dominick “PhotoDom” Lewis, Cherry Stephanie Ayala, and Nicole Motta
