Mel Rosenthal's photographs document the burning
of the South Bronx between 1975 and 1983. The portrait photographs depict the
everyday lives of residents against backdrops of rubble, abandoned buildings,
and destroyed city blocks as they struggle to survive "planned
shrinkage," an urban planning strategy utilized from the 1960s-1980s to
raze residential buildings in older urban areas and replace them with
industrial parks. website
Mel Rosenthal was born in the South Bronx and grew up in the 1940's and
50's, close to the neighborhood where he made the photographs in his book, In
the South Bronx of America. He attended P.S. 88, P.S. 28 (run by Hunter
College), J.H.S. 22, and Taft High School, all in the South Bronx. Positive
experiences at City College of New York fostered in Mel alternative ways of
looking at the world. He received a P.h.D. in English Literature and American
Studies from the University of Connecticut. His thesis was on the effect of
alienation on American writers. He taught at Vassar College and the University
of Connecticut before taking a journey of self-exploration to Africa.
In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Mel learned photography by working as a
medical photographer at the University Hospital. Part of his job involved
photographing with Paolo Freire, a Brazilian linguist who was directing a
UNESCO sponsored literacy project to teach people how to read and write by
allowing them to discover the power of words and images. Mel's experiences in
Africa ignited a passion for the documentary image and its uses and from that
time on he has been a photographer.
Mel's South Bronx portrait project, his first sustained work, grew out of
his teaching work at Empire State College in the South Bronx in the 1970's.
When many South Bronx residents were driven out of their homes by fires and
fled to their native Puerto Rico, Mel and writer John Brentlinger produced a
documentary book in 1989 -- Villa Sin Miedo !Presente! -- about a
successful land rescue community on the island. His project, Refuge, a
touring exhibition of photographs with accompanying text by Jack Salzman, also
has its roots in the South Bronx and is a record of the New Americans living in
New York State and their experiences pursuing the American Dream.
Mel's work most often focuses on how changing social conditions influence
individuals. He is known for his work in Nicaragua, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and
Vietnam. He was one of the founders of the Triage Project (a collective of
photographers, doctors and writers documenting homelessness and the health care
crisis in New York City) and of Impact Visuals, a collective photography
agency. His work is represented by Image Works, an editorial photo agency.
Mel is Distinguished Professor of Art at SUNY/Empire State College, where
he teaches photography and directs the college's photography program in New
York City. He is the photography editor of culturefront, the magazine of
the New York Council for the Humanities, and has been awarded fellowships from
the New York Foundation for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. website
All images © Mel
Rosenthal/Museum of the City of New York.
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