Opening Reception: Thursday, January 14, 6—9pm
Q&A: Thursday, January 14, 8pm

Moderated by Stella Kramer

NEW YORK, NY (January 14, 2016) — Cindy Caroli and Luis Santana have come together to curate a long awaited group photography exhibition. NYC Streets Then and Now puts together in one room some of our favorite street photography of the last 40 years. Along with the exhibition we will have a Q&A during the gallery show where attendees are welcomed to ask legendary photographers Clayton Patterson, Martha Cooper, Robert Herman, Sue Kwon, Janette Beckman and Flo Fox questions about their experiences in shooting in the Streets through out the years.

Street Photography has always been an essential tool for the documentation of people and its times. Yes, times have changed but many things remain the same. “NYC Streets: Then and Now” brings together some of NYC’s best street photographers. Pioneers of a craft so widely used throughout the world today. The exhibition also showcases the photography of young contemporary street photographers. Each one of these individual has a shared passion, united as one through art. The rich Imagery that varies through many years in New York, who’ve captured the cities diverse culture, It’s history, oppression, style, and life in old and new, New York.

Highlighting Multiple era’s of New York under one roof, Comparing & Contrasting the transitioning communities, such as Clayton Patterson’s fond connection of the lower east side, and his vivid captures of police brutality is as equally valued as Khalik Allah’s personal representation of 125st and Aymann Ismail’s harsh yet mesmerizing photos of a similar theme. Martha Cooper documenting graffiti, children and the urban decay of NYC and culture in its prime, Where Destiny Mata documents the people of NYCHA projects and their communities in a very similar way. This exhibition relays through various photographers perspectives and aesthetics both inspired by others & New York it self.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Clayton Patterson from Calgary (Canada) is an artist, photographer, documentarian, activist, historian, bookmaker, professional fine art printer, and cap maker. He is the head of the radical art movement NO!art West (New York)  led the idea of using the commercial video camera as a community defense tool. With Elsa Rensaa, his wife, they developed the Clayton Cap, which changed the history of the baseball cap. They have an expansive archive of ephemera, photos, and videos related to the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Clayton Patterson helped create and ran the Tattoo Society in New York for over a decade and was involved in the legalization of tattoo making in the city. He also organized the first New York International Tattoo Convention. He published several books: Wildstyle: History of a new idea (2003), Captured (2005), Resistance (2007), the anthology LES Jews(2012). LES Street Gangs is still ongoing. He is the subject of the movie Captured(2008), and he took part to the documentary Everybody Street (2013). www.patterson.no-art.info Martha Cooper began photographing the street as a child in Baltimore.

She delved into the Lower East Side in the 1970s and 80s, photographing children in what came to be her book Street Play. Developing intimate relationships with the first players of the graffiti scene, she tirelessly captured the movement at its birth, when there was little attention given to the art, and eventually produced the seminal work, Subway Art. She has since been published in National Geographic, Natural History and Vibe. Currently on a project in Sowebo, Baltimore, Martha lives and works in Manhattan. -everybody street Robert Herman has been a street photographer since his days as an NYU film student back in the late 70’s His photos of New York City shot between the years 1978-2005 on Kodachrome are featured in his first monograph:

THE NEW YORKER’S.

His work is part of the permanent collections of the George Eastman House and the Telfair Museum in Savannah, GA. His photographs are also in many private collections including Westin and Marriott Hotels. In 2011, images from The New Yorker’s were exhibited at the Istanbul Photography Museum. In 2013 his solo exhibit “A Waking Dream,” was presented at the Museum of Modern Art in Cartagena, Columbia. He has a BFA in Film making from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and received his Masters in Digital Photography from the School of Visual Arts in NYC.

Sue Kwon first assignments were from the Village Voice & Paper Magazine, shooting subjects such as N.W.A. to Jamaican Nightclubs in Queens. Here she learned some aspects of photojournalism; making the best of five seconds to capture an image, dodging security guards, and gaining the trust of strangers.  She went on to photograph for The Source Magazine and record companies such as Def Jam, Loud & Sony, working with artists such as Wu-tang Clan & Beastie Boys. Her favorite assignments are the ones in which she gets to spend considerable time with the subject while documenting their daily activities.“Shooting studio portraits is inspiring, but getting the chance to respectfully capture someone within their private, spontaneous & mundane moments is even better.”

In 2009, her first monograph was published by Testify Books: Street Level, NY Photographs 1987-2007 , Testify Books/DAP. Janette Beckman “Londoner Janette Beckman began her career at the dawn of punk rock working for The Face and Melody Maker. She shot bands from The Clash to Boy George as well as 3 Police album covers Her powerful portraits
celebrating this music and style are collected in ‘Made in the UK: The Music of Attitude, 1977-1982’ PowerHouse Books 2005. Moving to New York in 1982, she was drawn to the underground Hip Hop scene.

Her photographs of pioneers such as Run DMC, Slick Rick, Salt’n’Pepa, Grandmaster Flash, Big Daddy Kane and 1980’s style are collected in “The Breaks, Stylin and Profilin 1982-1990″ PowerHouse Books 2007. Her photographs have recently been exhibited at: The Museum of the City Of New York, Fold Galleri Iceland, HVW8 LA, Le Salon Paris, Morrison Hotel Gallery NYC, Ono Arte Bologna, Paul Smith London, Tower RecordsTokyo, Blender Gallery Sydney, etc. Janette lives and works in New York City. She is the New York editor for the British style & culture magazine ‘Jocks&Nerds’.” Flo Fox A reportage, “Street Photographer” since 1972. Flo has shot over 120,000 images. Subjects vary, but tend towards the “ironic reality”, in NYC, her work has been shown at the Nikon House, IMB Gallery, and is in the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum and the Smithsonian. “Though Visually impaired and physically challenged from multiple sclerosis in wheel chair, I never go anywhere without my camera. Totally disabled from the neck down since 1999, I have to direct friends, attendant or people in the street to take pictures for me.”

Khalik Allah b. 1985, is a self taught filmmaker and photographer. His work has been described as visceral, hauntingly beautiful, penetrative and profoundly personal. In August of 2010 Khalik asked his father to loan him a camera to take some casual photographs of his emcee friend, The Genius of The Wu- Tang Clan. But when Khalik was given a fully manual, analogue film camera, his casual interest quickly became serious. Up until that point he was focused mainly on film-making. Photography became and extension of that film-making, allowing Khalik to create more quickly by telling stories in a single frame. Photography and film-making are two overlapping circles that form a venn diagram in Khalik Allah’s mind; the area where they overlap is the space he inhabits as an artist. Destiny Mata b. 1988, A New York native who has established her self as an everyday street photographer. Her portraits of LES residents, hip-hop culture, and punk rock culture are raw and uncut. Destiny captures the characters of NYC with out filters and with out fear. Her work has been published in Vice’s Noisey, Vibe Magazine, The Source Magazine and exhibited at the Museum of New York during their Rising Waters Exhibition of the aftermath of hurricane Sandy.

Alberto Vargas Born and raised in Ridgewood, New York, Photographer Alberto Vargas was influenced by photography since the age of 13, His passion sparked when he started shooting his friends skateboarding out and about NYC. He’s shown at Museum of Modern Art, The Art Director’s Club, Clic Gallery, MODA. Vargas is currently working on documenting the sprouting culture and changing face of the places he grew up. Aymann Ismail is an Egyptian-American photographer and video journalist. Raised in the cultural limbo of a post-9/11 America, his work focuses on city life, urban culture and the personal and national struggles of identity. Ismail frequently visits his ancestral home in conflict-torn Egypt where he documents the people beyond the headlines. He currently resides in Brooklyn, NY, where he navigates the illicit world of graffiti capturing moments rarely seen from the underbelly of New York City.

Jessica Lehman is a Brooklyn-based photographer best known for her raw visual documentation of contemporary underground movements. From protests and social revolutions to the belly of hip hop’s underground community and its emerging artists, Lehrman is a committed documentation of the worlds she is impassioned to be a part of. Touring with Jermaine Dupri, visiting fracking sites with Yoko Ono, and spending a day in the life with the likes of Kendrick Lamar and the Flaming Lips, Lehrman has captured the glamour, grit, goals, and gratitude of some of the biggest names in today’s music, issues, and cultural concerns. Her work has been featured in publications such as Rolling Stone, The
New York Times, Vanity Fair, Billboard, VICE and more. Luis Santana Picked up a camera at the early age of 13. “I owe it to my parents who continuously encouraged me. I remember receiving the most minimal digital Kodak camera for my graduation.

With out knowing any fundamentals of using a camera, a purpose grew over the years. A large aspect in that purpose would be growing up in my fathers studio space. Everyday after school for over 4 years I would go straight to his studio space, restless nights and early mornings. Over time I made sure there was a development in my body of work and the cameras I used. In my more youthful years there wasn’t any remorse and eventually I learned the value in capturing day to day adventures in New York. Yes the city never slept, but neither did I. ”