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Mid Hudson Times, Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Newburgh barbers recognized in photo exhibition
By KATELYN CORDERO
[email protected]
On Sunday barbers, friends, families,
photographers, and community members
all joined together at the Newburgh
Community Photo Project to celebrate the
opening of the Newburgh Barbershops
exhibition.
“Newburgh Barbershops: Shaping a
Community” highlights the men behind
the scenes that not only cut hair but
serve as a center of the community. The
Newburgh Community Photo Project
joined forces with the Frederick Douglass
in Newburgh project to highlight the
work of barbers in Newburgh that goes
far beyond a simple haircut.
The idea to look at barbershops came
from Gabrielle Burton Hill and Naomi
Hersson-Ringskog, project organizers.
They started community discussions
at local barbershops to engage in tough
conversations about living in Newburgh.
Hill saw the photo project as a way to
keep the discussions going and to put the
spotlight on the barbers themselves.
“The impact I envisioned was exposing
the positive outlook on black men because
the reports and exposure they get is often
David Cordero is excited to participate in
another project with Cianni on immigration.
He plans to graduate from Lehman College
in 2020 with a degree in pre-physical
therapy with a concentration in exercise
science.
The Newburgh Community Photo Project joined forces with the Frederick Douglass in Newburgh project to highlight the work of barbers in
Newburgh that goes far beyond a simple haircut.
one sided,” said Hill. “I wanted to get a
different narrative of what black men
are all about, they’re surrogate fathers,
workers, and employers. The second
thing was to recognize businesses in
Newburgh that get overlooked. These
are longstanding businesses that are not
going anywhere that are planted here.”
Hill worked with Vincent Cianni,
founder of the Newburgh Community
Photo Project (NCPP) to pull together
a team of professionals and students to
capture the work of African American
and Latino barbers through the lens, and
through interviews.
“The goal was to investigate spaces
that are the anchors of our community.
With all the collaboration we did more
than achieve that goal. We went into
some very profound spaces and created
something incredible,” said Cianni. “I
went in to take the black and white photos
to capture moments of stillness and quiet
paired next to these moments of color ad
vibrance is a pretty incredible thing.”
Barbers walked around the room
admiring the moments captured in their
shop. Luis Vasquez, Owner of Real E
Cuts, took a picture of one of his student
barbers in front of the work. His pride
cleary showing through when admiring
the photographs.
“I got this shop 1 year and one month
ago,” said Vasquez. “My vision is to open
shop to teach the kids to learn to cut hair.
One day I hope to open a big shop where I
can teach high school students to cut hair.
I love to have the kids in my shop and
watch them grow up and be successful.”
Vasquez had his pictures taken
by David Cordero one of two student
photographers.
“The first barbershop I entered I was
Continued on page 34
Therese Fischer, one of Cianni’s students captured this moment at Faded barbershop on
Liberty Street. Fischer was accepted to Eugene Lang College at the New School in Manhattan
with a scholarship