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Joe Conzo Jr.
Opening Reception: Conzo: A Look Back at the Bronx, 1977–84
Friday, March 22, 2024 · 6–9 PM
Bronx Documentary Center
614 Courtlandt Ave, Bronx, NY 10451
The silver gelatin prints in this exhibition were created at the BDC from Joe Conzo’s original negatives, generously loaned by Cornell University’s Hip Hop Collection.
Experience the Bronx through the lens of Joe Conzo Jr., whose powerful photographs capture the cultural and activist movements that transformed the borough during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Born in the South Bronx in 1963, Joe Conzo Jr. was immersed in a world of music, activism, and emerging culture. His father was the personal confidant of Tito Puente, promoting major salsa shows of the time, while his grandmother, Evelina López Antonetty, was a renowned community activist known as the Hell Lady of the Bronx. Joe’s high school classmates were pivotal in the birth of Hip Hop.
At just 10 years old, Joe began carrying his camera everywhere, documenting school walkouts, the infamous fires that devastated the Bronx, and iconic rap battles between foundational Hip Hop groups like the Cold Crush Brothers. Today, his photographs serve as an intimate and unparalleled record of the dynamic forces that shaped the Bronx into what it is today.
