Featuring: Marissa Alper, Elena Calvo, Cristina De La Rosa, Adina Farinango, Natalie V. Grant, Carolina Jimenez, Marilyn Leal, Lissette Carolina Maliza, Lizzy Montana Myers, Ximena Natera, Miguel Ortega, Nancy Rance, Geovanna Rivera, Heriberto Sanchez, Amani Sodiq, Francesca Stolcke, Kai Velazquez
This exhibition features the work of 17 fresh photographic voices from the Cafecito community as part of Fresh Mercado’s free 1:1 creative consulting initiative, now in its 5th year. What Keeps Us asks for breaks from the traditional and asks the question we’re all sitting with: what sustains us when it’s hard, and what will we hold on to when it gets harder? The side walls hold five bodies of work surrounded by the artists’ thinking, process, and the images that create them: edits, notes on choices, B-frames, and elements that influence this work outside of the final piece. It’s the gap between the draft and the final image that tells the complete story.
The back of the exhibition features a contact sheet of the 17 artists’ work. Images are presented alongside an interactive table of objects, offering alternative ways of viewing photography as everyday objects and keepsakes. It reflects the importance of the non-precious via tactile objects. We see the photograph move through a lifecycle, but also as a way to see how image-making doesn’t stop at the snap of the camera; it transcends the image-maker, their vision, and how it’s shared.
As we redefine physical archives, we ask what makes an image significant. Using lo-fi production materials invites us to touch and see the humanity behind the handmade, while feeling its fragility at a time when we don’t have all the answers. What Keeps Us lets the mess be visible and shows the work, process, and community all in the same room.
Organizations
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Fresh Mercado
Fresh Mercado is a visual culture platform translating creative intelligence for the future of image-making and tastemaking. As photography, design, and image-based media intersect with AI, FM helps professionals, artists, and in-house creative teams understand cultural shifts through writing, forecasting, events, and consulting. It is the home of Cafecito, a free annual 1:1 consulting initiative for visual creatives.
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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
Fresh Mercado Presents Cafecito: What Keeps Us
Featuring: Various Artists
Curated by: Nicole Motta
Locations
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.
Special thanks to photographers and creatives of the Cafecito community and to Nicole Motta.
