Exhibitions

Graffitti Eye - from the series 'American Ruins' | Camil Jose Vergaro

American Ruins | Camilo Jose Vergara

June 30 - July 30 2006

This is the first European exhibition of new work by the distinguished American photographer and sociologist, Camilo Jose Vergara. It is presented in association with the UCD Clinton Institute for American Studies' international conference on 'Photography & the City'.

Camilo José Vergara has been photographing sites of postindustrial ruin in the United States for more than thirty years, building a compelling visual chronicle of urban change. Repeatedly photographing the same locations in several American cities he documents both large scale and subtle changes in buildings and neighbourhoods. His photographs reveal the hidden dimensions of 'decline' and 'regeneration', and hold up a critical mirror to the urban history of American modernity.

Vergara's work has come to constitute one of the most important visual archives in the United States, celebrated for its ambitious documentation of the environs of inner city America. Vergara says of his project: 'I wanted to create a visual archive similar to that sponsored by the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression, but one representing the post-industrial American city instead. I have concentrated on those areas of the cities which have been left behind, and which are sometimes referred to as "reservations of the poor," or hyper-ghettos.'

This new exhibition at the Gallery of Photography combines portions of his most famous work, from Detroit and Harlem, NYC, along with a large selection of recent work on Camden, New Jersey, one of the most beleagured cities in America. Beginning to photograph Camden in the late 1970s, Vergara had 'the ominous feeling that the cityscape was about to disappear' and he returned regularly to document sequences of neglect and abandonment as well as sporadic efforts at rebuilding the urban fabric. His Camden work has recently been supported by a Ford Foundation grant and is the focus of a major multimedia project titled 'Invincible Cities', hosted by Rutgers University - at www.invinciblecities.com

Vergara is a 2002 recipient of a MacArthur 'genius' grant. His work has been exhibited widely and his photographs are in the collections of the New York Public Library, the J.P. Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and other institutions. His books include The New American Ghetto (1995), American Ruins (1999), Unexpected Chicagoland [with Timothy J. Samuelson] (2001), Twin Towers Remembered (2001), and How the Other Half Worships (2005).

The exhibition at the Gallery of Photography is part of an international conference titled 'Photography and the City', the first of its kind to be held in Ireland. Organised by the Clinton Institute for American Studies at University College Dublin, the conference will take place in the William Jefferson Clinton Auditorium, UCD campus, on the 29th June - 1st July. Internationally renowned photographers and academics - among them Camilo Jose Vergara and Peter Hales - will be among the 90 guest speakers, and delegates will be coming from across the world. For further details see www.ucd.ie/amerstud or contact Catherine Carey, Catherine.carey@ucd.ie, tel 01 716 1561.

For further information, press scans, or to arrange to interview with the artist, please contact Tanya Kiang, Director, Gallery of Photography. The American Ruins private view will take place on Thursday 29th of June at 6:30PM.