Miguel Anaya Lyric R. Cabral Mark Nevers Danny Ramon Peralta Bashira Webb Curated by Chet Urban

The Bruckner Gallery, in Mott Haven, is pleased to announce the opening of Departure, a group show of five concerned photographers with a strong connection to the Bronx and their communities. They met 5 years ago at The Point, a community arts organization in Hunts Point. They solidified as a core group when they were accepted into the Jocelyne Benzakin Fellowship program at the International Center for Photography (ICP). Here, as the “JB” Fellows, they had access to respected photojournalists, editors and agents. Notable mentors included James Nubile, Fred Ritchin, Joseph Rodriguez, Frank, Fournier, and Robert Pledge. They were also afforded the opportunity to join editing sessions at TIME Magazine and Contact Press Images.

The group continues working with Frank Fournier in his South Bronx studio as a loose collective; each developing their individual voices as socially oriented photographers exploring their communities. Some themes these photographers investigated include: Afro Punk; elderly drug addiction; the streets of our neighborhoods; family; support/protest; and immigration.

This young group, in the last year, has garnered several awards and recognition which includes: BRIO (Bronx Council on the Arts) Grant; Howard Chapnick Grant; Jocelyn Benzakin Fellowship (ICP); Photo District News; and, American Photo/Portfolio: Emerging Artists 2007.

In keeping with the esprit de corps that has grown amongst them, the group decided to give back in a dynamic way. They formed The NYC BRiDGE Project’s vision is to enlarge and replicate the model under which they thrived, and to serve young people in neighborhoods where photography is not celebrated and photographic education is limited.. In 2008, the group was awarded a grant by the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund to help support the growth of the NYC BRiDGE Project. Work of the members will run concurrently with Departure at the Bruckner Gallery.