Life on the Block

April 11, 2009 8:40 AM

A native of Barcelona, Spain, Adriana Lopez Sanfeliu moved to New York in 2002 to pursue a career in photography. Adriana has been capturing the lives of young Puerto Rican women and their families in Spanish Harlem, NYC. There is a hardness that characterizes Life on the Block.

Other projects by Adriana include:

Mississippi a Year After Katrina — Those that owned land placed the FEMA trailer on their property; the rest were placed into trailer parks. A year after the storm the majority of these families were still living in this temporary housing. Insurance fraud, lack of contractors and mismanagement of government grants postponed the recovery of this part of the US.

A Gypsy Life: The Salazar Family

The Tompkins — Douglas Tompkins was the founder and owner of the clothing company Esprit. His present wife, Kristine Tompkins, was the CEO of the outdoor clothing company Patagonia. After retiring, they each created foundations dedicated to Nature conservancy. The foundations have since purchased over 1.5 million hectares of land in Chile and Argentina. Ultimately, that land will become national parks.

posted by netbros (6 comments total)

So intimate and so amazing. Some of these seem like recorded memories instead of photographs. "The rats passing through my face while I am sleeping..."
posted by mindsound at 9:00 AM on April 11

mehtafilter, black and white doesn't make it great
posted by askmehow at 9:15 AM on April 11

I don't see what there is to dislike about this. The photographs seem artfully done, sure, but to my mind this sort of thing is less about art and more about history.

I would give very much to have an intimate peek into normal life in 1899, or 1799, and so on. In 100, 200, 300 years our descendants will have stuff like this to look at. And I'm a little jealous.
posted by Darth Fedor at 10:11 AM on April 11

yeah, because europeans know how to make art out their fetishing "the other". grock forbid you give cameras to the people on those photographs, have them document their own life for a month and actually sell the results in an art gallery as high art.

meh.
posted by liza at 10:23 AM on April 11

The Spanish Harlem photos were very good. Nice post, thanks!
posted by zerobyproxy at 11:34 AM on April 11

thanks, netbros - liked it all, but particularly enjoyed meeting the Salazars!
posted by madamjujujive at 3:39 PM on April 11