An impressive crowd gathered yesterday in Loew Auditorium to hear Pablo Delano, a photographer and this term's artist-in-residence at the Hopkins Center, speak about his life, his art and his hopes.
Delano will be teaching photography for the next two terms here at Dartmouth, and a selection of his recent photographs is now on view in the Jaffe-Friede gallery at the Hop until Feb. 16.
He spoke soberly, with assurance, describing how both his parents, artists themselves, encouraged him to pursue his artistic bent. Born in Puerto Rico, he felt at home in the Latino quarters of New York when he came to this country at an early age.
Delano actually began his career pursuing painting at Yale University. After graduation and back in the Big Apple, he and his friend Larry Dobens collaborated on highly detailed and humorous drawings.
"We fancied ourselves as very clever," Delano recalled, not without irony.
But one day, as Delano admired those gaudy, colorful shops at Coney Island, he realized that only photography can capture what he loves -- smiling children, old and abandoned street facades, and discrete visual puns.
For Delano, no limit exists between documentary records of everyday urban life and the most artistically conscious compositions.
In fact, he voluntarily calls himself a "documentary photographer." As long as a picture provokes curiosity or interest in the viewer, Delano feels that he has succeeded. The distinction between what art critics call "high" or "low" art is not a concern for him.
This attitude explains the great diversity of Delano's work. Commissioned by the Immigrant Museum on Ellis Island, he shot hundreds of portraits to adorn an immense American flag in the museum's main gallery. From that assignment he put together "Faces of America," a beautiful and compelling volume published by the Smithsonian Institute.
Another one of his projects consisted in photographing the many bodegas, or family-run general stores, typical of the Hispanic neighborhoods in New York.
Finally, one of his on-going projects is to record on film all sorts of trucks, an idea inspired by his son David.
Despite all these seemingly disparate threads, one theme unites his life's work and still pushes him into new areas -- the community. From his days at Yale, to the most recent photos at the Jaffe-Friede, Delano has always cared about, and reached out to, the community around him.
That is why government funding for public art projects and spaces is so important to him. There children of all nationality and background can play, paint or simply escape the tough city streets. Only there, Pablo Delano feels, does the artist really fulfill his mission.
Driven by such noble convictions, it seems natural that the city of New York chose him to make a series of photos that would embody the essence of the "community." They now hang in a new school in Washington Heights, N.Y, and some of the pieces from this collection compose Delano's current exhibition at the Hop.
The "Portrait of Mrs. Carter," for example, stands out as a homage to all the people, who like Mr. Delano, dedicate their life to the improvement of society.
Another picture, "Mike's Barber Shop," illustrates the close bonds that form in closely knitted communities. The photo almost looks like a quaint Norman Rockwell illustration. Except here the barber and the child are African-American, and probably poor.
His humor and subtle eye also mark "Kindergarten Graduation, Lower East Side." In this picture a black child stands between two grotesque party masks, both of them white. Without any rage or bitterness, Mr. Delano comments accurately on the white, middle-class male prototype that still endures in contemporary America.
There lies one of the strengths of Delano. He depicts scenes devoid of violence, permeated with feeling, lit by a soft, warm light, but never falls into cliche or kitsch. His serene view on the world will undoubtedly move each visitor to the show.
However, Delano can choose to be unsentimental. In "Ice Cream Truck," a skewered pig slowly roasts in a cheery converted ice cream van. Such disturbing opposites together drastically diverge from some of the quieter works in the show, proof that Delano is a versatile artist equally at home with irony or sentamentality.
Delano will moderate a panel titled "Beyond the Studio: Engaging the Community" in 13 Carpenter on January 14 at 4:30 p.m. The panel will include fellow artists, Ralph Lee, Antonio Martorell and Nitza Tufino.
