Starting May 30, PRESENTE CONTINUO will be available to purchase on presentecontinuo.com, cpcompany.com, and at the C.P. Company flagship store in Milan, Corso Matteotti 7.
I want to hear a little more about the process of your book. What birthed the concept?
I was promoting a scene called “Dos Dos” that I worked on with my friend Joey in Mexico. Then I met Emilie and gave her a copy and invited her to the show. She was living in New York and we became friends. One day, she came to me with the idea of a photography book and so we started the project in 2019, before the pandemic.
What made you choose Harlem?
There’s a lot of beauty in Harlem. I lived there for a long time. It’s a neighborhood that's constantly changing. While living there I was photographing everywhere I went, even coming in and out of Harlem. There’s some photos in the book of the train which emphasize the changing beauty of everyday life.
That’s so interesting. Tell me more about “changing beauty.”
Well, subway cars are constantly changing. Who knows? Maybe in ten years, we’re not going to have these cars anymore because they’re getting modernized and more sophisticated. So I wanted to capture that.
Describe Harlem in one word.
Blue.
That leads to my next question. Why “Strong Blue?”
It all leads back to my grandmother. When I was a kid that was the word she used for jeans. So whenever she wanted me to wear jeans she would reference them as “strong blue” in Spanish. Naturally, blue became my favorite color.
How did you come up with the title, “Beauty Beauty?”
At first, we thought of naming the book “Harlan Days” but then we looked at some of the photos and focused on one in particular. It’s sort of blurry and there’s a lady there with the most beautiful eyes that I always see in the same spot, reading. I’m not sure if she’s homeless. But for some reason, there’s this sign behind her that says “Beauty Beauty,” and I liked how the blurry quality fit with the doubled nature. It worked with the idea of seeing beauty in things that are not necessarily beautiful.
How would you define beauty?
Beauty is different to everyone, right? For me, it’s something with a unique color and texture. For example, today I was walking and noticed this rich, red tomato on the ground. It was broken. There was also an empty box of McDonalds right next to it. I took a picture of it and it all worked together. Tomato… ketchup… french fries. Beauty is sort of like music in your brain, like matching things together to produce a rhythm of things happening.
I like how you described beauty as rhythmatic. I’m curious about the photo of someone holding up a toy doll and a beer. Explain that rhythm.
I was coming out of the hospital with my camera and then all of a sudden I saw two people drinking a really cheap beer and playing with dolls. You can see the finger of the other person there. I was very curious about what was going on, myself. They were kind of like big kids drinking and I snapped their photo.
Do you ask people for permission before you take their photos?
I usually get close up to get a read first. Sometimes I introduce myself first but it’s like a combination of talking and taking photos at the same time. It’s a skill that you develop as you go. Some people look back, some people don’t say anything. I actually know someone who took a photo of a lady once and she hit her. You never know what to expect. But in my opinion, it’s better to ask for forgiveness than for permission.
School of Art student Camille Levy first started thinking about some sort of interdisciplinary home for music, sound, and listening at Cooper in the fall of 2022. In those early months, CRC founder Levy felt a need for both a creative platform and a community hub as the school emerged from its pandemic isolation. The Cooper Radio Collective was the answer.
With support from faculty Lucy Raven and Zach Poff, and partnership with Cooper student Julia Kim, who created the CRC website, Levy began a campaign for funding and a space for its operations. After receiving financial support from the Student Affairs Office, Levy, Kim, alongside School of Art collaborators Keegan Bonds-Harmon and Oscar Mooney began conceptualizing the mechanics of the collective and its place in the school community. The Collective began broadcasting in the Spring of 2023.
Featuring 25 to 30 hosts per semester, the radio broadcasts live from radio.cooper.edu each weeknight from 6pm to 12am. Students and faculty from all three schools (Art, Architecture, and Engineering) host hour-long shows from a comforting, dimly lit room in one of the school's administrative offices, fostering what might be Cooper’s only truly interdisciplinary space.
Shows with titles from ‘Pluviophile’ (with Magik Malik on Mondays at 9pm), ‘Weather Report’ (with Anika on Wednesdays at 6pm) and ‘Warm, Luke’ (on Fridays at 6pm) provide auditory experiences including live instrumentation, dialogue, reading, spinning, vintage vinyl, mixtapes, and original tracks.
This fall, the program entered its first full year of broadcasting with newfound momentum and a full roster of DJs. To kick off the season, the collective hosted its first live event, “CRC Circus,”— in early October at the Sixth Street Community Center featuring five performances bands and artists within the Cooper community. The event also featured gourmet sandwiches for sale by student Cinco Walter Hawkins’s eponymous ‘Cinco’s Sandwich Shop.’ In the weeks since, Cooper Radio Collective has remained live each night, broadcasting exceptional audio and working towards a collective vision of the school as united, empathetic, and dedicated to collaboration.
With the goal of giving youth a space to unleash their creativity, the exhibition and event will raise funds for the organization to continue its commitment to providing free, high-quality art classes for children in public libraries nationwide. My Kid Could Do That features childhood works by renowned contemporary artists including Daniel Arsham, KAWS, Marco Brambilla, Sarah Cain, Seth Cameron, Nate Lowman, Kevin Claiborne, Oliver Clegg, Dan Colen, Austin Eddy, Amy Globus, Devin B. Johnson, LeRoy Neiman, Jen Stark, and Darryl Westly.
By showcasing childhood works by these renowned artists, ProjectArt is elevating the crucial role arts education plays in developing a young creative potential. Without giving them the proper tools to succeed, we risk passing by our next artistic greats who never got the chance.
“There are over 4 million kids in elementary schools in the U.S. that don’t receive any arts education,” ProjectArt founder and executive director Adarsh Alphons said. “We realized libraries are the best distribution systems because, unlike a museum, they’re decentralized with branches in every community and it’s free — anybody can walk through the doors.”
In addition to the exhibition, the ProjectArt Gala will feature passed bites and cocktails provided by Bulleit Frontier Whiskey, BODY Vodka, Hampton Water Rose, and JuneShine, among others. The lively after party will feature music by DJ Trevor McFedries.
