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The Arts Intel Report

En Foco: The New York Puerto Rican Experience, 1973–74

Nov 12, 2021 – Feb 27, 2022
1230 5th Ave, New York, NY 10029, USA

In 1973, three Bronx-based photographers—Charles Biasiny-Rivera, Roger Cabán, and Felipe Dante—decided to document their neighborhood. They captured their subjects in black-and-white: teenagers eating lunch at Franklin High School, men behind bodega cash registers, empty barber shops, migrant workers picking cauliflower. Choosing 79 photographs taken in 1973 and 74, the artists released a single portfolio that explored small businesses and labor in their Puerto Rican community. In 1974, they collaborated again, this time founding En Foco, an art collective that encourages and presents work by fellow Puerto Rican and Latin American artists (nearly 50 years later the collective is still running). For the first time in decades, that first collaboration—the photo portfolio—is on view. Also included are posters and catalogues for 1970s exhibitions in which En Foco took part. —J.D.

Charles Biasiny-Rivera, “Benjamin Franklin High School,” 1974. Courtesy of El Museo del Barrio.