Juan Giraldo
Juan Giraldo is a photographer currently living and working in Brooklyn, NY; he received his MFA in May of 2015 from Columbia College’s photography department. He was born in Manizales, Colombia and raised in Paterson, New Jersey. He received his BFA with a concentration in photography in May 2009 from William Paterson University. Giraldo’s artistic practice explores verisimilitude through Identity, Dignity & Allegory. This is done through long term photo projects where he looks at the personal lives/spaces of working-class people of color.
Awards include The Hopper Prize, The Center for Photography at Woodstock A-I-R Program, Dwight D. Follett Fellowship Full Tuition Award from Columbia College Chicago, Honorable Mention in, En Foco’s, People Places and Things. For a full list of exhibitions, visit the artist’s website.
His work explores the personal interior spaces of working people, (in particular the employees of Great Lakes Reload and his family in Paterson, New Jersey) the textures of a working life, and the banal indicators of domesticity that shaped his view of the world, both as a first-generation immigrant and laborer. In addition to this work he continues to photograph his family as part of an ongoing project in which he looks at his relationship with his parents.
Mom & Dad (Summer), Paterson, NJ, 2014
Artist Statement
My photographs explore the lives of a people; their experiences closely mirroring my own. I was born in Manizales, Colombia and raised in (the Riverside section of) Paterson, New Jersey, after my parents, brother, and I moved there in 1981. I spent most of my life in the shadow of New York City, in the midst of the declining industry and long forgotten silk mills of the Riverside section of Paterson. Paterson is a working-class city, similar to other working-class cities where my subjects live. Growing up there has had a profound impact on my personal and political views as an artist. The people I photograph share qualities with so many of my family members, former co-workers, and friends. With my practice, verisimilitude, identity, dignity and allegory are important in how I familiarize myself with my subject’s anecdotes and experiences. This allows me to embrace the details, beauty, and drama of the mundane, which unfold as I photograph them. Building these strong bonds allows me to photograph my subjects as I would my family. The evidence by the decor of these homes reveals their residents as people of Catholic faith, first generation immigrants, and blue-collar manual laborers. In their stories I see echoes of my past. Intimate spaces reveal the textures of a working life; a Gatorade bottle as a vase uncovers the beauty in the banality of domesticity. My portraits and still life photographs highlight objects of importance and their iconographic meaning in these settings, reflecting a reverence for my personal history and the lives of the people I photograph.
At Tusen Takk
Over the course of 2022, Juan made work in/about Paterson, NJ, the city where he was raised. This project was imagined specifically for his time at Tusen Takk, where he printed the series of fifteen photographs in photogravure. Additionally in residence, Juan continued to edit his East 17th St. body of work (ongoing) that focuses on his parent’s home life.
Mom & Dad’s Apartment, Paterson, NJ, 2020
Public Program
