CAMILO JOSE VERGARA
Photographer and writer. Subjects: time-lapse photography of urban spaces; ghettos in the U.S.; ruins; housing; American popular culture.
CONTACT
camilojosev@gmail.com
EDUCATION
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, BA in Sociology, 5/68 Columbia University, New York, MA in Sociology, 5/77
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
How the Other Half Worships, Rutgers University Press, 2005 Subway Memories, The Monacelli Press, 2005 Unexpected Chicagoland (with Timothy J. Samuelson), The New Press, 2001 Twin Towers Remembered, Princeton Architectural Press, 2001 American Ruins, The Monacelli Press, 1999 The New American Ghetto, Rutgers University Press, 1995 Silent Cities (with Kenneth T. Jackson), Princeton Architectural Press, 1989
FORTHCOMING BOOKS
Harlem: The Unmaking of a Ghetto, University of Chicago Press, Fall, 2013 Detroit: A Progress ReportSELECTED EXHIBITIONS
"The Dream Continues: Photographs of Martin Luther King Murals,” New York Historical Society, Jan. 18, 2013-May 5, 2013 "Detroit is No Dry Bones," National Building Museum, Washington D. C., Sept. 2012-Feb. 2013 “Tiny Towers: 1970-2011,” Museum of the City of New York, Aug. 2011- Jan. 2012 “How the Other Half Worships,” National Building Museum, Washington DC, June-Nov. 2009 “Harlem: Photographs of Camilo José Vergara, 1970-2009,” New York Historical Society, April 30, 2009-July 12, 2009 “Where We Live: Photographs of America from the Berman Collection,” J. Paul Getty Museum, Oct. 24, 2006-Feb. 25, 2007 “Subway Memories,” Museum of the City of New York, Fall-Winter 2004-2005 “Twin Towers Remembered,” National Building Museum, Nov. 2001-March 2002 “El Nuevo Mundo: The Landscape of Latino Los Angeles,” at Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York, 1999; Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 2000; and two other venues “Vergara’s Chicago,” Chicago Historical Society, June-Sept. 1999 “L’America dei Perdenti,” Triennale, Milan, June 23- July 25, 1999; Vienna, Jan., 2000; Museu D’Arte Contemporaneu (MACBA); Barcelona, March 2000 under the title, “The New American Ghetto.” Kwang-Ju Bienniale, South Korea, Sept.-Dec., 1997 "They saw a very great future here: Photographs from Central Los Angeles by Camilo José Vergara," Getty Research Institute, Santa Monica, Nov. 4, 1996-May 2, 1997 “The New American Ghetto: Photographs by Camilo José Vergara,” National Building Museum, Washington, D C, Jan. 26-May 5, 1996; Urban Center of the Municipal Art Society, New York, June 1996- Sept.1996 "City Speculations" (group exhibition), Queens Museum of Art, Nov. 17, 1995-March 10, 1996 "Temporarily Possessed: Semi Permanent Collection" (group exhibition), New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, Sept. 15-Dec. 30, 1995 "The New American Ghetto Revisited," Brussels, Belgium, May 1995 "In Transit" (group show), The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, 1993 "The New American Ghetto," Columbia University School of Architecture, New York, Oct., 1992; and Yale University School of Architecture, Oct., 1993 "Silent Cities," New York State Museum, Albany, Oct.1992- March 1993
OTHER PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
1976-present. Photographer and writer for "The New American Ghetto Archive," a collection of more than 14,000 color slides documenting poor, minority communities throughout the United States. The archive is being catalogued, digitized, and stored for use by scholars. 1970-present. Organizing and photographing “Invincible Cities,” a website for the cities of Camden, NJ and Richmond, California in collaboration with Prof. Howard Gillette (Rutgers University) http://invinciblecities.camden.rutgers.edu/intro.html
AWARDS
Berlin Prize, Fellow at The American Academy in Berlin, Spring 2010 Individual Grant, Architecture, Planning and Design Program, New York State Council for the Arts, 2008 Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, New York Public Library, 2007-2008 MacArthur Fellow, 2003-2007 Visiting Scholar, Getty Research Institute, Oct. 1996- Dec. 1996 Individual Grant, Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts, 1987, 1996, 1999 Individual Grant, Design Arts Program, New York State Council for the Arts, 1990, 2001 Robert E. Park Award of the American Sociological Association, for The New American Ghetto, 1997 Revson Fellowship at Columbia University, School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation 1986-87 Fellow, Design Arts Program, National Endowment for the Arts, 1983, 1985, 1988