Los Inocentes

Starting at the age of ten and continuing until today, Edwin Pagán has documented the people of the South Bronx and other interconnected communities with a disciplined photographic eye that he’s trained over the course of 50 years to “see” and not merely “look.” This has allowed him to capture a full visual spectrum of the region in a manner that is a unique hallmark of his creative and compassionate visual signature.

Edwin Pagán’s Los Inocentes (The Innocents) is a documentary photoessay that focuses on the resiliency of children who live in urban communities in less-than-ideal circumstances, but who prevail and thrive beyond their environments in the South Bronx, Spanish Harlem (El Barrio), and the Lower East Side (Loisaida).

The images compiled in this photographic showcase reveal the untainted splendor of children just being themselves in everyday situations. Individually they present fleeting tableaux of precise personal incidents. Taken together, they provide a wider understanding of how universal youth resiliency really is. If from the mouth of babes comes the truth, then this metaphoric photo album speaks to the will and tenacity of human beings.

Artist Bios

Edwin Pagán

Edwin Pagán is a Bronx-based multidisciplinary artist whose work centers around photography, filmmaking, sound and graphic design. Pagán was introduced to the arts at age 10 at the Hoe Avenue Boys & Girls Club, which led to his extensive careers in photography and cinematography. He is noted as one of the premiere visual artists from the Bronx, and his body of work is an intimate and humane look at the cultural idiosyncrasies of inner-city communities from an “insider’s point-of-view.”

In 2011, he co-founded Seis del Sur, a photo collective of six photojournalism and documentary photographers who have documented the South Bronx for over four decades. A life-long fan of horror, in 2008 he founded LATIN HORROR (latinhorror.com), an online portal that promotes Latin influenced horror. As a result, he is widely credited with establishing a distinct and valid genre in the film industry.

More recently, Pagán has harnessed his creative skills and ventured into the virtual- and augmented-reality space to create interactive multimedia installations that take as a point of departure the same themes he’s explored in his photographic work.

Organizations

The Bronx County Historical Society

The Bronx County Historical Society is a private non-profit organization that collects and disseminates historical material and information about the New York City borough of the Bronx, as well as southern Westchester County, New York.
NYC Parks

NYC Parks is the steward of more than 30,000 acres of land — 14 percent of New York City — including more than 5,000 individual properties ranging from Coney Island Beach and Central Park to community gardens and Greenstreets. We operate more than 800 athletic fields and nearly 1,000 playgrounds, 1,800 basketball courts, 550 tennis courts, 65 public pools, 51 recreational facilities, 15 nature centers, 14 golf courses, and 14 miles of beaches. We care for 1,200 monuments and 23 historic house museums. We look after 600,000 street trees, and two million more in parks. We are New York City’s principal providers of recreational and athletic facilities and programs. We are home to free concerts, world-class sports events, and cultural festivals.