David Gonzalez is a Nuyorican photographer born in the Bronx. He has received his education from Cardinal Hayes High School, Yale, and Columbia. He began taking photos seriously in 1978, then shifted to writing until 1999, when he resumed making pictures while reporting in Central America for The New York Times. He is a founding member of Seis del Sur, and longtime co-editor of the Lens blog.
Photo: © Edwin Pagan/Seis del Sur
Four decades of my Bronx life: street life from a native son who lived through the fires and came back to document it.
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Self Inverted tackles the personal tension commonly felt by gay Chinese individuals struggling with self-acceptance, and acceptance from their family and society.
A Family in Transition is a photographic essay documenting the lives of Tanner, a transgender male, and his partner David, as they grapple with Tanner’s unexpected pregnancy, the birth of their daughter Paetyn, and their life together as new parents.
The Cult of Souls is an ongoing long-term documentary photography project about rural celebrations, and the range of activities offered to visitors. The work is a visual narration of the events that are simultaneously mundane and extraordinary.
Un/Settled is a project that explores white South Africans’ histories, privileges, and reflections on identity.
Get It and Come Back is an ongoing series of expanding representations of the Caribbean-American experience. Kierra Branker creates images that parallel her shared experience of heritage in a distant homeland.
Kibera Stories shares the realities of life inside Africa’s largest slum and its people, its talent, and its potential, while providing insight and raising awareness about life inside the slum.
La Última, The Last One, shows trans women preparing to seek asylum with dignity in the U.S., while waiting in unsafe conditions in a shelter in Tijuana.
The exhibit is focused on dismantling stereotypical Native American coverage in the mainstream media with diverse images that present a contemporary viewpoint of what Native America looks like in 2019.
In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, the Chicago neighborhood of Pilsen saw its cultural peak as a mecca for Mexican-American immigrants in the Midwest. The 2.76-square-mile community has seen rapid development, study shows.
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“The McFarthest Place” documents the social, economic, and political mindset of the disappearing rural Midwest through one county in South Dakota.
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Mo dreams of building the world’s fastest car, putting the top down and feeling the wind press back the features of his face as he enters warp speed. He dreams of freedom. When he grows up, he also wants to become a doctor, because doctors make lots of money and save lives.
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The word Ayacucho comes from Quechua AYA (dead, corpse) and CUCHO (corner), meaning “the corner of the dead”. The last two decades of the 20th century were one of the most tragic moments for the city of Ayacucho and the history of Peru.
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This project follows three Ugandan teenagers as they navigate the challenges and joys of youth.
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“Hot Mamma” aims to create an experience where women from different age groups and backgrounds can “feel themselves” while they are being photographed.
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“In These Clasped Hands” started as a series of portraits of my family members in South Carolina. However, after the Mother Emanuel AME Church massacre, the effects of loss could be felt throughout the state.
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Eight years ago, I lost my mother and I needed to explore the possibility of keeping a connection with her. In my journey, I began looking for pieces of my mother in the house, I found many photos and clothes, which had always been there, but which I had ignored over the years. There she was, smiling and posing in these clothes.
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Las Vegas, New Mexico is a place that is rooted in a complex linguistic and cultural history where the boundaries of identity are fluid and intricate, but it is also as American as any small town in the country.
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Lola Muñoz, 13, has lived the last 18 months as if they were her last, because they are. She is an extraordinary girl.
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A large number of arrests have taken place in Egypt since the revolution of January 25, 2011, many of them unfounded. With many lovers left behind, inspiring stories of love, loss, and longing are being told by heartbroken women.
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Wadi El Qamar, also known as Moon Valley, is a residential area located in the west of Alexandria, Egypt, next to the Portland Cement Factory. Just ten meters away from the residential area, the factory processes coal and garbage. It layers the homes of more than 30,000 people with toxic dust, causing tremendous health problems to those that live there.
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In this project, gold is a metaphor for wealth and lust. However it also allows us to discuss the extinctions of species, tribes and ecosystems that disappear because of our madness for wealth and our desire to rule over everything. The new gold is asymbol of the disappearance of what I consider our true riches.
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The 1,700 Syrian refugees relocated to Scotland may be just a fraction of the 300,000 asylum cases that Germany has received, or the 100,000 that Sweden has taken in since the war in Syria broke out six years ago. But in order to play its part, the Scots are attempting a new model for integration.
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“The Patriot Story” is a portrait series that tells the rarely told stories of the living Ethiopian Patriots, who proudly fought against the Italian army during the five-year occupation (1935-1941) in Ethiopia under the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini.
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‘A Beautiful Abstraction’ strives to express how I see the world around me and the beauty in unseen places. My work explores the blending together of different mediums, such as photography and painting, to ultimately seek a tranquil balance of humanity and abstraction.
This project focuses on undocumented Mexican immigrant women who came to New York decades ago in search of opportunity for their families. Overtime, they built their lives here and have become elders of their communities: the abuelas.
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The series uses the concept of a family tree to consider what it means to be part of a joint body; addressing sub-themes of intimacy vs loneliness, fear vs comfort, ‘sanity’ vs ‘insanity’, life and death.
This is the story of a young veteran who was disabled by an IED explosion in Afghanistan, but it is also the story of two middle school sweethearts reuniting, falling in love and creating a new life.
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“Paradise Lost” started in 2012 as a document of Venezuela’s collapse and the rise of violence. Venezuela is now one of the deadliest countries in the world. It is estimated that over 28,000 people were killed in Venezuela last year—that is, in a country roughly the size of Texas.
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The recent presidential election has thrust American Muslims into the limelight. They are scrutinized as if under a microscope, yet portrayed in a simplistic and stereotypical manner.
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“Room” is a series of portraits, self-portraits and letters, exploring the passage from girlhood to womanhood.
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“The Smallest Library in Africa” tells the story of Peter Otieno, a Kenyan visionary who saw the need to fill the education gap and address one of the main problems in the Mugure slums of Baba Dogo-Nairobi, Kenya: access to books.
Learn MoreJoin David Gonzalez in conversation with Elizabeth Krist to discuss Gonzalez’s work from his exhibition, “Bronx Life.”
Learn MoreJoe Rodriguez and David Gonzalez will be discussing his groundbreaking National Geographic cover on Spanish Harlem in the 1980s, looking back on a vital New York City community that is undergoing increasing gentrification.
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