Harlem: The Unmaking of a Ghetto

by Camilo José Vergara

For more than a century, Harlem has been the epicenter of black America, the celebrated heart of African American life and culture—but it has also been a byword for the problems that have long plagued inner-city neighborhoods: poverty, crime, violence, disinvestment, and decay.


Photographer Camilo José Vergara has been chronicling the neighborhood for forty-three years, and Harlem: The Unmaking of a Ghetto is an unprecedented record of urban change. Vergara began his documentation of Harlem in the tradition of such masters as Helen Levitt and Aaron Siskind, and he later turned his focus on the neighborhood’s urban fabric, both the buildings that compose it and the life and culture embedded in them. By repeatedly returning to the same locations over the course of decades, Vergara is able to show us a community that is constantly changing—some areas declining, as longtime businesses give way to empty storefronts, graffiti, and garbage, while other areas gentrify, with corporate chain stores coming in to compete with the mom-and-pops. He also captures the ever-present street life of this densely populated neighborhood, from stoop gatherings to graffiti murals memorializing dead rappers to impersonators honoring Michael Jackson in front of the Apollo, as well as the growth of tourism and racial integration.


Woven throughout the images is Vergara’s own account of his project and his experience of living and working in Harlem. Taken together, his unforgettable words and images tell the story of how Harlem and its residents navigated the segregation, dereliction and slow recovery of the closing years of the twentieth century and the boom and racial integration of the twenty-first century. A deeply personal investigation, Harlem will take its place with the best portrayals of urban life.

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction, New York, Art

364 pages, Hardcover

First published September 15, 2011

Reviews

[Sarah - All The Book Blog Names Are Taken · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful work. One would think a book of pictures shouldn't take long to peruse. However, I found myself really looking at these photographs and people, wondering about these places and their lives. I especially enjoyed the time-lapse photos of different sections of Harlem, those I poured over the longest, taking in all the details of how these blocks have changed.

Vergara did an amazing job of making me really care about these people and places, using very little text. I want to know what happened to the people in these photos, I want to know about their lives. Superb, I can't say enough good things about this snapshot of life in Harlem.

[Nuha · Rating 5 out of 5]

With more pictures than words, this book is a great way to visualize the gentrification in Harlem.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent photo works--

[Frederic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although ostensibly focusing on the built environment -- most of the photos are identified by address, and there are several series of the same address over a period of time -- the real subject is the Harlem communities. You see people interacting with each other, with the streets and businesses, and occasionally with the photographer. Photos date from the 1970s through the early 2010s, and record the dramatic changes that have taken place over that period. Vergara is an excellent photographer, but his text here is also really well done (each subsection has an introductory text, and there are a couple of longer sections as well).

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Camilo Jose Vergara brings a fine photographic eye, a sociologist's curiosity and expertise, and tremendous commitment to his explorations of cities, their decay and their resilience. This study of Harlem is most enlightening.