In “A Humanist Gaze” until April 6th 2013 Hardhitta Gallery presents 36 photographs by Joseph Rodriguez, the first showing of his works in Germany. The exhibition consists of a selection of his best prints in cibachrome and silver gelatin spanning three decades. Joseph Rodriguez will be present at the opening.
Rodriguez’s photography intimately documents the life of people who live at the fringes of society: families who live on the wrong side of the law, prostitutes in Mexico, jail inmates in Zambia and pentecostal pilgrims in Romania. Isolation, migration, prostitution and religiousness – people are always at the focus of Rodriguez’s work: “I am a humanist, people are important to me. The way I take photographs may not be hip, but they are relevant.”
As a teenager in the 60s in Brooklyn, Rodriguez was jailed for burglary and drug dealing. When at the age of 20 he was released from prison for the second time, he decided to change his life fundamentally. He rejected drugs and criminality and embraced a new passion – photography. “The camera saved my life. Photography became my addiction and replaced the other one.” He took photographs of the life he knew. Rodriguez’s images have since appeared in renowned magazines and newspapers all over the world such as The New York Times, Newsweek, Der Spiegel, Stern, GEO and National Geographic to name but a few. The photographs displayed in this exhibition were taken between 1986 and 2005.
Rodriguez has received numerous awards and grants, the Rockefeller Foundation and Mother Jones International Fund for Documentary Photography. In 1990, 1992, 1996 and 2002 Rodriguez won “Picture of the Year” awarded by the National Press Photographers Association and the University of Missouri. Rodriguez is the author of the following books: Still Here: Stories After Katrina (2008), Flesh Life Sex in Mexico City (2006), Juvenile (2004), East Side Stories: Gang life in East Los Angeles (1998), Spanish Harlem (1995).
Joseph Rodriguez teaches at New York University, the International Center of Photography and universities in Europe and Central America. At the moment he is working on a project called “Re-Entry”, in which he documents the life and difficult new beginnings of released prisoners and their families.
Joseph Rodriguez: A Humanist Gaze
From March 2nd to April 6th, 2012
Hardhitta Gallery
Lindenstrasse 19
50674 Köln
Germany
Opening times: Tuesday to Saturday, 12am to 6pm
