“I get respect,” was Gladys’s explanation for never backing down from a fight—not even when a huge guy from D2D (Down to Destroy) threatened her with a razor in his fist.
“I had an ice pick and I put it to his neck and said, ‘Keep fighting if you want me to cut you open.’ ‘Why, you ain’t nobody,’ he said and started cursing and shouting. ‘I don’t care how big you are,’ I said. ‘I’ll cut you anyway. Because I’m me and I don’t care.’ And he saw I was serious and backed off. Guys like that respect me — a lot of people respect me — because I’ll go up against guys bigger than me, my enemies. I don’t care how old you are or what you are. You can be the President, I don’t care. If you do something to me, I’ll hit back, and that’s why a lot of people respect me. And that’s what I like: getting respect.”
Gladys, 15, Lincoln Heights, 1994
Many of the people in these photographs were teenage girls when Joseph Rodríguez first met them in Los Angeles in the early 1990s. They were growing up in neighborhoods shaped by gang violence and economic hardship, but also by strong families and a rich Latine culture.
For more than thirty years, Joseph Rodríguez and Swedish-American writer Carmilla Floyd have returned to photograph and interview individuals and their families as they’ve became adults, partners, and parents. Most of the stories center on girls and women trying to build different lives for themselves and their children.
Some eventually found stability. Others faced prison, homelessness, mental health struggles, or died too young. The cholitas and cholos running the streets in the early 1990s are now middle-aged—some are even grandparents.
Rodríguez, born and raised in Brooklyn, has spent more than forty years documenting migration, war, and youth culture around the world, as well as Latine communities across the United States. In East Side Stories (1992–2017), he put a human face to gang members in East Los Angeles.
Beyond Respekt will be published as a book and audio series.
Artist Bios
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Joseph Rodriguez
Joseph Rodríguez is a documentary photographer born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He studied photography at the School of Visual Arts and in the Photojournalism and Documentary Photography Program at the International Center of Photography.
His work has been published by National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine, Mother Jones, Newsweek, New York Magazine, Esquire, Stern, BBC News, and New America Media. He has received awards and grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts, USC Annenberg Institute for Justice and Journalism, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fund for Investigative Journalism, and others. He has authored eight books of photography, including East Side Stories: Gang Life in East Los Angeles, Juvenile, and Taxi: Journey Through My Windows 1977–1987, all published by powerHouse Books.
Joseph is represented by Galerie Bene Taschen, Cologne, Germany. His work has been exhibited at Aperture Gallery; Reva and David Logan Gallery for Documentary Photography at the Graduate School of Journalism, Berkeley, CA; and the Bronx Documentary Center.
He has been a visiting artist at many universities in the Americas and Europe and taught at New York University Tisch School of the Arts and The International Center of Photography.
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Carmilla Floyd (writer)
Carmilla Floyd, born in Los Angeles and raised in Stockholm, is a writer and human rights expert focusing on child rights, criminal justice, and migration. She founded the youth magazine Ocean and authored several books, including Respekt: Gang Violence in Los Angeles, shortlisted for Sweden’s August Prize.
Her work has taken her across the US, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, earning recognition from UNESCO, the Swedish Institute, the Swedish Academy, and the Swedish Association of Investigative Journalism. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, Svenska Dagbladet, and Dagens Nyheter, and her documentaries have been broadcast on Swedish Public Radio and Television.
Alongside her writing, Floyd develops multilingual platforms on children’s rights and has led journalism workshops in fragile contexts like Vietnam and Belarus. She contributes to The Globe, the magazine of the World’s Children’s Prize Foundation, and regularly guest lectures at universities and art schools in Stockholm and Gothenburg.
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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The Economic Hardship Reporting Project (EHRP)
The Economic Hardship Reporting Projects supports independent journalists so they can create gripping stories which often counter the typical disparaging narratives about inequality. This high-quality journalism is then co-published with mainstream media outlets mobilizing readers to address systemic economic hardship.
Beyond Respekt
Featuring: Joseph Rodriguez Carmilla Floyd (writer)
Locations
ON VIEW AT: #48
View Location Details Download a detailed map of this location Brooklyn Bridge Park – Emily Warren Roebling Plaza1 Water St
Brooklyn, NY 11201
This location is part of Brooklyn Bridge Park
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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.
Beyond Respekt has received suport from The Economic Hardship Reporting Project. EHRP supports independent journalists as they forward fresh narratives about inequality. EHRP’s high-quality journalism is then co-published with mainstream media outlets, to help readers understand and address systemic hardship.
