I attended a live discussion called “We Built This City: Destiny Mata and Gogy Esparza in Conversation” today. This event highlighted Mata and Esparza, two Latinx, New York City based photographers, who are exhibiting together at Abrons Arts Center. Destiny Mata is a documentary photographer whose work has been featured in Teen Vogue, VICE’s Noisey, and others. Her show, La Vida en Loisaida (Life on the Lower East Side) features images Mata captured of her neighbors and friends from 2009, when she started practicing photography at age 18, to 2020. In the backdrop of many of these images are the Lillian Wald Houses where Mata grew up; for Mata, the NYCHA buildings are the soul of the city. Gogy Esparza is a photographer and videographer whose work has been featured in The New York Times, Vogue, VICE, i-D, and others. His show is called Can We Talk? and it is an autobiographical reflection of New York City.
Both Mata and Esparza prioritize capturing Black and Latinx individuals and communities in their photography; they believe that these communities are the heart and soul of the city and really encapsulate what it means to be a real New Yorker. During the discussion, both photographers delved deep into the circumstances surrounding select images from each of their shows. Mata explained how she was first encouraged to pursue documentary photography by a professor at LaGuardia Community College. She recalls him saying, ‘What better person to tell the story of your neighborhood than you?’ For Mata, her photography practice is about preserving history, especially in ever-changing neighborhoods as a result of gentrification. One of the images she spotlighted was one she took of her neighbor––an elderly woman with frosty blue tips and electric blue tights to match; in the background are the Lillian Wald Houses.
For Esparza, his fascination with the city stems from ‘90s and early ‘2000s hip-hop photography. During the discussion, he touches on the appropriation of street photography in mainstream media. He also recounts a heart wrenching story around one of the images featured in his photo series. The image is of a woman in a dark nightclub during a birthday party––Gucci-emblazoned wallpaper serves as a backdrop. The photo captures a moment of vulnerability; it describes a search for a way out of poverty in an unforgiving city. Esparza says that the woman lit her cigarette with his and then asked if he was willing to spend the night with her––she needed to make ends meet; however, he ended up not taking the offer. The tattoo on her face reads, “Life’s A Bitch.” The entire image and story is quite poetic.