Over the past 12 years, The Stand, a nonprofit newspaper focused on the south side of Syracuse, has sponsored a series of community photo tours designed to highlight and celebrate neighborhood life. The marches, which began with a group of eight people in 2010, have produced a bank of about 11,000 photos. And now, a small portion of that portfolio, 51 photos, is on display in ArtRage in a retrospective.
The show, titled From Where We Stand: Images from The Stand’s South Side Photo Walk, features work by 45 photographers from different backgrounds. They include neighborhood residents and college students, individuals who have taken pictures for a living and those with little experience using a camera, people who are intrigued by the idea of walking to take pictures and others interested in a particular subject such as architecture.
In ArtRage, various images appear in the gallery: portraits, portraits dedicated to urban geography, a few snapshots related to issues at the community level, and what is best described as photography of the moment.
For starters, a photo by Marilou Lopez Fritz depicts a man from a profile, emphasizing his smile, tufts of beard, and the lettering on his hat, and in 2018, Annalise Berry photographed a grandmother sitting on a balcony, between her grandson and the family dog. She embraces every one of them. To the right there is a bike on its side.
Additionally, Jordan Larson’s portrait of Clifford Mineff at home has two layers: the subject is sitting on the sofa; A series of family photos is on the wall behind him. The interaction of generations is direct and tangible.
On different trails, usually staged during July, photographers depict two twin sisters on bikes, local businesses such as La Solucion auto repair shop at 2401 S. Salina Street, and several barbershops. Look for Todd Michalek’s picture where the barber is cutting hair in the background while three kids are lying on the sofa in the foreground.
The show presents images with dual agendas: capturing the same scene and communicating a larger subject. Thus, Jenn Grzyvinski’s photo of a bouncer in the Wilson Park pool swings across I-81 to buildings on the SUNY Upstate Medical University campus. There is a sense of the highway as an urban barrier.
In addition, there are two photographs depicting memorials to the community. Reggie Seigler’s photo captures a column wrapped in teddy bears, a large paper heart, and other things. Such performances are usually installed to commemorate a child or teenager, to convey deep-rooted feelings.
A second memorial, photographed by Keith Waldron, depicts Clifford Ryan, founder of OG’s Against Violence, kneeling next to a tree. It was implanted many years ago when Ryan’s son was killed in a gun violence.
Elsewhere, a picture of Bob Gates depicts three children swinging on the playground. One sits steadily, the second begins to move, and the third flies himself into the air, hanging by one arm. Meanwhile, Janice Carroll picked up three subjects – a diaper-wearing toddler who’s put on jogging, a young man coming to bring him back, a little dog running on the sidewalk.
Photos and text by Ashley Kang, director of The Stand, trace the event’s evolution from a single outing for eight people to multiple outings on the South Side through 2020 when the COVID pandemic made group outings impossible. The rally became citywide, with individual photographers submitting photos. They depict a statue of Ernie Davis, the first African American football player to win the Heisman Cup, at Syracuse University; Several demonstrations protesting the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer; Umbrellas placed at the Thornden Park Amphitheater. Michael John Hegerty put them there as part of a dedicated public art project.
The rally changed to a hybrid format in 2021, but its mission remained the same. It is based on documenting urban neighborhoods, encouraging interactions between people who are unlikely to meet each other on a summer’s day, and embracing the principle of inclusivity. In an April 6 presentation in ArtRage, Kang talked about lending cameras to people who don’t have one and offering workshops run by seasoned photographers. The suite also hired residents familiar with the south side to act as tour guides in the morning.
Moreover, Kang talked about everything related to organizing a photo rallies. Among the same participants, ward director and staff member at the SI Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University; Newhouse students and teams of volunteers and community partners.
Moreover, there are no shooting paths in isolation. Each is a companion to The Stand’s print editions and other projects. Recent cases have covered topics ranging from a father’s strong relationship with his children to Syracuse Build trails to an apprenticeship program, from teens adjusting to life during the pandemic to the problems faced by refugees from Afghanistan resettled in Syracuse.
Not a single gallery will explore every aspect of the images, but that’s not the point of “where we stand”. Rather, it expresses and embodies two basic positions: the urban neighborhood is more than crime statistics and census data. It is a place of struggle, struggle and joy. Second, images capture everyday life and tell larger stories.
“Where We Stand” is on display through May 14 at ArtRage, 505 Hawley Ave. The exhibition is open from 2 pm to 6 pm on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and from noon to 4 pm on Saturdays. For more information, call 315-218-5711 or visit www.artragegallery.org.
Carl Mellor covered the visual arts for the Syracuse New Times from 1994 to 2019. He continues to write about artists and galleries in the Syracuse area.
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