Untitled (Three boys, Sheldon Cafe, Hartford, Connecticut)

Frank Espada, Untitled (Three boys, Sheldon Cafe, Hartford, Connecticut), 1981, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center, 2015.22.15, © 1981, Frank Espada Photography
Copied Frank Espada, Untitled (Three boys, Sheldon Cafe, Hartford, Connecticut), 1981, gelatin silver print, image: 9 × 13 1⁄2 in. (22.9 × 34.3 cm) sheet: 11 × 14 in. (27.9 × 35.6 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center, 2015.22.15, © 1981, Frank Espada Photography

Artwork Details

Title
Untitled (Three boys, Sheldon Cafe, Hartford, Connecticut)
Artist
Date
1981
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
image: 9 × 13 1⁄2 in. (22.9 × 34.3 cm) sheet: 11 × 14 in. (27.9 × 35.6 cm)
Copyright
© 1981, Frank Espada Photography
Credit Line
Museum purchase through the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center
Mediums Description
gelatin silver print
Classifications
Subjects
  • Architecture Exterior — commercial — restaurant
  • Cityscape — Connecticut — Hartford
  • Figure male — child — full length
  • Children
  • Cityscape — street
Object Number
2015.22.15
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2015.22.15

Artwork Description

In the 1970s, Frank Espada began The Puerto Rican Diaspora, an ambitious exhibition and book project that documented Puerto Rican communities across the United States. Espada followed the trail of migrants who had settled in cities from the Mid-West and East Coast to Hawaii. This picture was taken in Hartford, Connecticut, where many migrants arrived in the 1950s and 1960s to work for the tobacco industry. Despite their depressed surroundings, the three boys depicted here display energy and life. Espada's photographs function both as loving portraits and strident critiques of the social conditions in which Puerto Ricans lived.

Down These Mean Streets: Community and Place in Urban Photography, 2017
Description in Spanish

Durante los años 70, Frank Espada inició su ambicioso proyecto The Puerto Rican Diaspora, formado por una exposición y un libro que documentaron las comunidades puertorriqueñas en todos los Estados Unidos. Espada trazó los pasos de los migrantes radicados en ciudades desde el occidente medio y la costa este hasta Hawái. Esta fotografía fue tomada en Hartford (Connecticut), lugar adonde llegaron muchos migrantes en los años cincuenta y sesenta para trabajar en la industria tabacalera. A pesar de su entorno deteriorado, los tres jóvenes de la imagen están llenos de energía y vida. Las fotografías de Espada son à la vez retratos afectuosos y críticas agudas sobre las condiciones de vida de los puertorriqueños.

Por estas calles bravas: Comunidad y lugar en la fotografía urbana, 2017

Exhibitions

Photograph of children playing in the water from a fire hydrant by Hiram Maristany
Down These Mean Streets: Community and Place in Urban Photography
May 11, 2017–August 5, 2017
Smithsonian American Art Museum
America’s urban streets have long inspired documentary photographers. After World War II, populations shifted from the city to the suburbs and newly built highways cut through thriving neighborhoods, leaving isolated pockets within major urban centers.