En Foco celebrates 30th year

Afterimage, July-August, 2005 by Ilana Swerdlin

After 30 years of existence En Foco is still rooted in discussion, mentorship, collaboration and artistic exposure of and for "minorities." Today En Foco's programs include an annual New Works Photography award given to up-and-coming photographers, ongoing exhibitions in community venues such as libraries, universities and banks and the publication of Nueva Luz, a bimonthly journal dedicated to showcasing the photographic work of people of color. Over the span of thirty years, En Foco has exhibited 99 photographers in either the journal or in one of the traveling exhibitions that have become part of the permanent collection (and are displayed on En Foco's web site). With a $45.00 membership fee, En Foco offers portfolio reviews, access to their slide registry of the permanent collection and a subscription to the journal Nueva Luz.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

En Foco's founders, Charles Biasiny-Rivera, Roger Caban and Phil Dante met in the Bronx in 1974 at an exhibition entitled "Dos Mundos: the Two Worlds of Puerto Rico (where they each had work exhibited). At a small gathering at Caban's apartment following the exhibition the vision of En Foco was formed. They found a kinship in similar backgrounds and wanted to address the discriminatory world around them.

The original vision was to examine their New York-Puerto Rican cultures and unite under shared experiences in a world that labeled them as "Spanish"--with no distinction as to who they really were. They began working at a grassroots level that epitomized the term "mentorship" by providing photo-based education in elementary schools and taking photography out of the gallery, and exhibiting the photographs of friends, family and neighbors among these communities. "We were making work that made us feel alive," Biasiny-Rivera stated in a recent interview, "it was 'personal work.'" In 1978, En Foco received public funding and took up residence in a donated office in an empty building at Lehman College in the Bronx. In 1985 En Foco began publishing Nueva Luz.

Little has changed in Nueva Luz from its original intent. Each issue still features one to three artists, with accompanying biographical details, artists' statements and a portrait of each artist. One image is displayed per page, creating a distinctive gallery. The written commentary on the photographs by different critics has built an enduring forum for discussion about the images and imagemakers. The commentary ranges from discourse about intent and technical details to similar themes found within the work. It was important to have the photographers reviewed, and En Foco fostered the notion of artists' fees that equaled those in the mainstream art world. "This gave a sense of equality--even though the good artists are working from their hearts, it impressed on an artist that they could have good work and money," Baisiny-River commented. Nueva Luz began as a black and white tabloid printed on newsprint and sold for $3.00. It included the self-descriptive statement that it was "a photographic journal that addresses itself to the search for statements by photographers who have developed a reflective stance vis-a-vis their culture." Nueva Luz committed to "showcase a process in which we witness a dedication to define a unique aesthetic."

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Today Nueva Luz is a slick, full-color magazine that sells for $7.00 and describes itself as "the country's premier photography magazine to publish works by American photographers of African, Asian, Latino, Native American and Pacific Islander heritage." Nueva Luz has kept up with the times. For example, "Critical Mass," a section listing opportunities for photographic artists, was added.

What seems to be the most significant result of En Foco and its public face of Nueva Luz is minimizing prejudice. Sadly, this discrimination was still present in a 1995 New York Times review by Vivien Raynor entitled "Photographs With a Puerto Rican Imprint." Raynor writes, concerning an En Foco exhibition, "The character of the [Hostos] show is Puerto Rican if only because the curators say it is. Indeed, disinterested spectators may at first have trouble recognizing it as particularly Hispanic." (1) Raynor obviously missed En Foco's primary intentions as the organization's mandate is clearly to dispel preconceived ideas of how a certain culture behaves. Throughout the years what Nueva Luz has offered is photography--interesting, challenging, disturbing, lovely, sad--that needs no language to speak. Associate Editor Betty Wilde-Biasiny agrees with this in her introduction to the 2001 Commemorative issue of Nueva Luz. "It is clear that En Foco does not rely upon preconceived formal notions about photographic imagery," she writes, "and has helped forge the depths of its aesthetic possibilities." The bilingual aspect of Nueva Luz in its editorial and commentary sections makes it an important bridge for cultural gaps and provides a uniquely successful tool for both photo-based education and linguistic applications.