sin lÍmites

COLLECTIVE STATEMENT

Seis del Sur: Sin Límites is as much about a state of mind as it is a place. We came of age photographing devastation, though we were just as attuned to the quiet moments and steady rhythms that sustained us then. Just as our first show at the Bronx Documentary Center was a homecoming, this also resonates with some of our personal histories. Edwin learned photography at the Hoe Avenue Boys and Girls Club, the same venue were Joe photographed many of the early concerts of the Legendary Cold Crush Brothers. David taught photography at CS 61, which lay several devastated blocks north of the BMHC.

Since then, we’ve grown up, moved around and seen the world. We went into journalism, labor activism, arts administration and film. Through it all, we’ve kept taking pictures. And rather than let ourselves be defined by what others expect – either of us or our communities – we have turned our cameras to the things that fascinate us. But we still find our muse on the streets – even if those streets are far from the Bronx – whether it is music, art, the struggles and triumphs of daily life, or even a search for the invisible.

Since we’re opening on July 25 – the 116^th anniversary of when United States troops landed in Puerto Rico – we have decided to mark that event in our own way: with a photo. In some, the flag is evident, as it stakes out and lifts up. It surrounds and outnumbers the American flag that flies over East 105 Street. It stands bravely in the night, like a sentinel over the emergency village that sprouted up under the Park Avenue tracks after a gas explosion destroyed two nearby apartment buildings. In others, a person embodies the Puerto Rican spirit, like the poet Pedro Pietri, or a self-portrait that places Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man in Puerto Rico.

Forty years after we started venturing out into the streets of the South Bronx with cameras, we’ve seen a lot. But best of all, we’ve come back – as always – to share it. Here, in the Bronx.