Home In New York with Roy Baizan
- Name, age, where are you from, what format you like using, what are you currently working on if you are?
My name is Roy Baizan. I'm 28 and from the Bronx, NY. I’m currently making most of my images with a Zenza Bronica Medium-Format camera- It’s a tank! But I love the 645 format and feel of the camera.
With it I've worked on documentary projects about The Bronx River, The Hunts Point Produce market, and made portraits out on the streets of my home borough.
- What about your surroundings/environments and upbringing interested you?
I moved to the Bronx from Sunset Park, Brooklyn when I was 7 or 8 and growing up here I learned a lot about being in community. I owe a great deal of that to my stepdad Ricky Martinez who was very outgoing and connected with everyone he met. His stories of growing up in the Bronx in the 70s-80s fascinated me. He would host a yearly block party and I would go with him to gather food and other donations. These memories were formative for me because I wanted to be just like him. A community-oriented person. The camera has allowed me to do that. It’s a tool for me to meet and build a community as an educator teaching photography here in my home borough and working on stories about community organizing, land, identity, and documentation of the Bronx and all of its complexities.
- When was the first time you met photography? How did you feel when you met it?
One afternoon in 12th grade I was hanging out in the hallways in between classes. My friend Raymond was putting away his books when I saw him pull out a Pentax film camera. Immediately I asked about it and he explained how it worked- shutter aperture, and viewfinder. That moment sparked a curiosity for the medium that follows me to this day. I went home and started to look for cheap film cameras. Eventually, I was able to buy one from a guy on Craigslist. It was a Sears Super KSX camera with a 50mm lens and a few rolls of 400 Fujifilm. I spent all my money on it so I couldn’t get the rolls developed after I shot them. So I spent a week going around shooting blanks and it didn’t matter much because it was about the possibility of going out into the world (city) and not needing a reason besides my curiosity to engage with surroundings in a different way.
- Tell us about current projects you have been working on (could be any, or just work you have been doing in general). Is this story inspired out of personal reasons, or others? What are you most excited about in these projects?
Between last year and this year, I was working at the Hunts Point Produce Market with my brothers. It’s a sprawling chaotic market that provides 60 percent of fresh produce to NYC. While I was working there I was photographing the workers, facilities, and moments in between. It's a tough job being a porter and it opened my eyes up to how food is distributed across the city in one of the largest markets in the world.
Coming out of this job I have become more interested in photographing labor in and around the city. As I sort through those images I have been thinking about all the conversations I had with my coworkers about the economy, politics, immigration, food, family and I want to go out and continue to have those conversations and document other fields of work. Because workers move this world and I want to understand how they are managing during these times.
Otherwise- I have since left and have been focusing on being a photo educator across a few different programs. I have been doing this for years and it’s one of my favorite things to do besides making images.
- How did you find your visual literacy? Why are you attracted to certain images more than others?
Shortly after getting my camera I joined a free photo program at The Point CDC in collaboration with ICP. There I learned about how photography can impact the way a community is represented. We looked at work by Gordon Parks, Roy Decarava and many others who worked closely with the folks they were photographing- they made these images with respect and dignity I felt. That led me down a road of looking at photos by Latoya Ruby Frazier ,Martin Chambi, Joseph Rodriguez, Cinthya Santos Briones, and many others.
Recently I have enjoyed looking at Tina Modotti's work. Her images of revolutionary Mexico and her commitment to her political beliefs are inspiring as we face an oppressive government. I think about the kinds of images that we see daily on social media from Palestine to ICE Agents across the country . These images reverberate in my head and they’re hard to shake off but that's part of how fear is sown into us. I think an element of resistance is creating images that inspire hope- revolutionary optimism. Yeah, things are awful but as image makers/artists are we looking to our communities - grassroots organizing and supporting them? I think that part of what I am interested in today is to create images that uplift and serves so that we can imagine and create a better future- at least that's the goal.
- Imagine meeting someone who is picking up a camera for the first time. What do you tell them?
Photograph everything, get closer, and connect with your community wherever it may be. Create your own photo archive of what you care about.